Laffey, Leitner & Goode LLC submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Wisconsin Supreme Court earlier this week in Johnson v. Wisconsin Election Commission, Case No. 2021AP1450-OA. Representing 36 Republican, Democrat, and independent voters who hail from each of Wisconsin’s 33 Senate Districts, LLG filed its “friend of the court” brief as a means for voters affected by gerrymandering to be heard by the high court. Wisconsin’s 10-year redistricting plan is before the Court due to an impasse reached between the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor Evers over legislative maps proposed by the Republican-controlled legislature.

LLG’s brief presents an informed voter assessment of critical failings of SB-621 containing the Legislature’s proposed maps, Petitioners’ misplaced promotion of a “simple scorecard” for use by the Court in its assessment of the contemplated apportionment without regard for legal parameters established under state and federal law, and the apparent infusion of political considerations into the process.

LLG Founding Partner, Mark M. Leitner, on behalf of the Concerned Voters of Wisconsin, stated: “Our firm was pleased to join in this effort by a group of concerned Wisconsin voters – Republicans, Democrats, and independents – who ask the Court to hear what everyday citizen voters have to say about redistricting in this state. The people are tired of gerrymandering—on both sides of the aisle—and it is time for the courts to recognize that the people need to be heard. This brief sends a clear message that ‘we the people’ matter.”

The Concerned Voters came before the Court as individuals expressing their own views as citizens. They do not represent any special interest group. They are not in power seeking to stay in power, nor are they out of power seeking to be in power. They are not being paid for what they do. LLG worked with these citizens to ensure their voices were heard by the Court and the litigants.

Much as they did in 2020, when they sought to vindicate the fundamental constitutional right of all eligible voters to participate in elections after the nationally notorious, pandemic-flaunting, refusal of the Wisconsin Legislature to delay the Spring Election in the State of Wisconsin, LLG has once again shown that it means what it says. The firm is assuredly committed to justice of all kinds by action, not just words.

We are relentless, inspired, committed, and authentic.

You can read the full brief filed in the Johnson case here.