Common Cause Wisconsin Executive Director Jay Heck joined University of Wisconsin Political Science Professor David Canon and John Nichols of The Nation and The Capital Times to discuss gerrymandering in Wisconsin. Organizing For Action sponsored the event, which attracted a full house at the Alicia Ashman Library in Madison. Common Cause Wisconsin also sponsored the event along with Fair Elections Project, Indivisible Madison, and Citizen Action.
 
Wisconsin is the tip of the spear of a nationwide effort to end the manipulation of districts for political advantage. Last year, the state’s assembly districts were struck down as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. This is the first time in American history that a single-member district plan was struck down on partisan grounds. Common Cause is working closely with the Campaign Legal Center, who litigated the case, and the Brennan Center for Justice to organize amicus briefs in the likely event that the U.S. Supreme Court hears Wisconsin’s appeal in the case. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiff-appellees who successfully challenged the map, it could result in a national prohibition against extreme political gerrymandering.