GOP lawmakers are trying to keep secret and out of public view 84 documents, most of them emails, in a lawsuit over redistricting, even though immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera says they are ignoring a prior court order to release the documents. That group has filed a lawsuit with Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne saying the Republicans violated the state’s open meetings law as well as violated the federal Voting Rights Act and U.S. Constitution because their treatment of minorities and gerrymandering that violates the rights of voters.
The three-judge panel overseeing the federal lawsuit has several times rejected arguments from GOP lawmakers that documents and testimony from aides and a consultant who worked on the maps are privileged. Voces de la Frontera wrote in a letter filed with the court yesterday that it objects to the lawmakers’ request for a magistrate to review the 84 documents to see if they should be turned over.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice filed a motion for summary judgment late Friday to dismiss several claims in the lawsuit filed by a group of Dem voters and joined by Voces de la Frontera.
The motion argues several of the claims amount to gerrymandering allegations, adding the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to establish a standard for when gerrymandering is so extreme it violates a plaintiff’s rights.
DOJ also argues the court should reject arguments that there should be seven Assembly districts where a majority of voters are African-American instead of the six in the GOP maps, arguing there aren’t sufficient numbers of African-American voters in those districts to do so. DOJ also rejects the Voces de la Frontera argument that creating two Assembly districts with a majority of Latino voters rather than one with a super majority dilutes their voting strength.
In response, the Dem voters who filed the suit argued the court’s scheduling order didn’t allow for a motion to dismiss to be filed so soon before trial, which is slated to begin next week, and thus the motion was improper.
*Read the Voces del a Frontera letter:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/20312005373.pdf*Read the DOJ motion to dismiss:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/20312004979.pdf*Read the plaintiffs’ response to the motion:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/20312005275.pdfSource: Wispolitics
The reason the 58 Assembly Republicans and 17 Republican state senators want to hide the 84 documents from public view is because they signed secrecy agreements when devising the redistricting maps that are pure partisan gerrymandering.
The non-disclosure agreement prohibited the lawmakers from speaking publicly about the redistricting talks or from leaking any draft documents they possessed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper reported Monday
The agreement also was signed by attorney Eric McLeod, of Michael Best & Friedrich, who advised lawmakers on the maps. McLeod recently drew attention for giving free legal services to state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.
Republican co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, State Rep. Robin Vos, had a talking points memo to have fellow Republicans intentionally violate open meetings law and public notice requirements during the redistricting process.
We should hope Vos respects his oath of office and resigns immediately. Those that signed the secrecy documents should also resign as well.
UPDATE 4:00 pm CST February 16, 2012:
MADISON, Wis. — A federal court in Milwaukee has issued another scathing order against Republican lawmakers, forcing them to make public emails and other documents related to redistricting that they wanted to keep secret.
The order issued Thursday is in line with three previous orders that found the documents produced by the Legislature are not protected by attorney-client privilege.
The three-judge panel for the eastern district federal court said the documents involve advice on political, not legal, strategy and therefore are not protected.
The judges said Republican lawmakers made a “poorly disguised” attempt to “cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin’s Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege.”
The judges called it a “shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny.”
Loading ...
