When Wisconsin voters were asked in 2020 whether to amend the state constitution to better protect the rights of crime victims, the response was overwhelming: the referendum passed by a three-to-one margin. But did voters know what they were getting? That’s the question at the heart of the first case of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s new term, Wisconsin Justice Initiative, Inc. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Since 2000, courts around the country have adopted new state legislative maps more than 20 times after other actors (usually lawmakers) failed to redistrict following a decennial census.