Why It Matters
A federal three-judge panel has dismissed a legal challenge to Wisconsin’s congressional district maps, delivering a significant ruling in the ongoing battle over how the state’s eight congressional seats are drawn. The decision in Bothfield v. Wisconsin Elections Commission leaves the current maps intact for now, meaning Wisconsin’s congressional boundaries — which have favored Republican candidates since 2011 — will remain in place as legal challenges continue through a separate, parallel lawsuit.
What Happened
On Tuesday, March 31, 2026, a three-judge circuit court panel dismissed the Bothfield v. Wisconsin Elections Commission lawsuit, which had been filed by Democratic voters last summer. The plaintiffs argued that Wisconsin’s existing congressional maps constituted an illegal partisan gerrymander under state law.
The panel’s dismissal does not end all litigation over the maps. A separate lawsuit, also challenging Wisconsin’s congressional districts on the grounds that they unlawfully suppress electoral competitiveness, remains active and is expected to proceed to trial in 2027.
The current congressional maps were drawn in 2022 by the Wisconsin Supreme Court after the Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Governor Tony Evers failed to agree on new maps. The Court ultimately adopted maps proposed by Evers, though those maps were developed under the Court’s “least change” mandate, which required proposals to remain as close as possible to the previously existing 2011 boundaries.
By the Numbers
- 6 of 8: Congressional districts in Wisconsin currently held by Republicans, with Democrats holding the remaining two.
- 15 years: Approximate length of time Republican-drawn legislative maps controlled the composition of the Wisconsin state Legislature before being struck down in 2024.
- 2011: Year Wisconsin’s congressional maps were originally drawn, establishing the district boundaries that have largely remained in place for over a decade.
- 2022: Year the Wisconsin Supreme Court implemented the current congressional maps following a legislative impasse.
- 2027: Year the remaining congressional map lawsuit is expected to reach trial.
Zoom Out
Wisconsin’s redistricting battles are part of a broader national pattern in which state and federal courts have been repeatedly asked to define the legal limits of partisan gerrymandering. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that federal courts cannot review partisan gerrymandering claims under the U.S. Constitution, pushing those challenges into state courts operating under individual state law.
Several states have faced similar redistricting disputes in recent years. North Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland have all seen court-ordered map revisions or ongoing litigation over partisan line-drawing. Some states, including California, Colorado, and Michigan, have shifted to independent redistricting commissions to remove map-drawing authority from elected legislators.
Wisconsin’s situation is notable because the state’s legislative maps were successfully challenged and redrawn in 2024, making the continued survival of the congressional maps a focal point for redistricting advocates. The 2024 legislative map ruling led to competitive state legislative elections that shifted the balance of power in the Wisconsin Legislature.
What’s Next
The second pending lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s congressional maps on competitiveness grounds is still moving through the courts and is not expected to go to trial until 2027, meaning the current maps will remain in effect through at least the next federal election cycle.
On the legislative front, Governor Evers signed an executive order earlier this month calling the Wisconsin Legislature into a special session to consider a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban partisan gerrymandering in the state. However, the Republican-controlled Legislature has historically been resistant to redistricting reform measures, and the outcome of that special session remains uncertain.
Open government advocates and some Democratic legislators have continued to press for the creation of an independent redistricting commission that would remove map-drawing authority from the Legislature entirely.
Following Tuesday’s ruling, Republicans and their allies responded positively to the panel’s decision. The dismissal of the Bothfield case marks another legal setback for those seeking to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional boundaries outside of the standard redistricting cycle.