In late March, a shocking ruling was delivered by the US Supreme Court regarding a long-shot appeal over Wisconsin’s redistricting maps. Legal “analysts” gave Republicans essentially no chance to overturn the state court’s decision to adopt Democrat-created maps spearheaded by Gov. Tony Evers.

Yet, a decision made via the shadow docket delivered new hope and also pushed the ball forward on stopping racial gerrymandering that has long been Democrat’s cheat code when it comes to redistricting.

To summarize, Democrat Gov. Tony Evers drew up another majority-black district in his redistricting submission, elevating proportionality above all other factors. In adopting that map, the state’s high court failed to analyze whether the district could have been drawn in a neutral fashion without resorting to racial gerrymandering. The case will now be sent back down to be re-evaluated and properly adjudicated.

The case was sent back to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and now a final victory has been delivered. The GOP-appointed Justice who originally sided with the Democrats has changed his vote, joining the majority to adopt the Republican-drawn maps.

GOP maps drop number of majority Black Assembly districts to 5 from current 6, which could lead to legal challenge.

Court finds there's "insufficient evidence" to justify drawing districts on basis of race.

— JR Ross (@jrrosswrites) April 15, 2022

Of course, the real win here is that the court found insufficient evidence to justify Democrats drawing districts solely on the basis of racial make-up instead of weighing other required factors. Yes, the maps in Wisconsin are important because every win counts, but the precedent being set will matter far more down the road in far more cases.

Naturally, the response to the decision was to pronounce the end of voter representation because Democrats are nothing if they aren’t overly dramatic.

.@WisDOJ: decision “travesty for democracy in Wisconsin,” makes extreme gerrymander worse.

“This ruling entrenches control by politicians rather than voters, sapping what life remained from any claim that our legislature meaningfully represents the people.”

— JR Ross (@jrrosswrites) April 15, 2022

I won’t belabor the point, but needless to say that this is another big win for Republicans just weeks after Democrats were bragging that they had cleaned up regarding redistricting. Nationally, Democrat gains via gerrymandering have mostly been canceled out after several recent court decisions. In Wisconsin, it looks like the GOP will compete for a super-majority in the state’s Senate and easily take the House. Given how important state politics are, that can’t be overlooked.