BOMBSHELL UPDATE in state Supreme Court case ROCKS House majority

We have a huge update here that may. completely upend what the House of. Representatives looks like. Mark, can. you give the update here as far as. Wisconsin is concerned, which currently. has a 6 to2 congressional map in favor. of Republicans? Yeah, Brian, you wouldn't know this from. the legacy media, but literally this. week, you know, this this Wednesday, the. Wisconsin Supreme Court heard two oral. arguments in cases involving challenges. to the Republican gerrymander that is. still in place in the state of. Wisconsin. This goes all the way back,

you know, from before Democrats had. their have had their recent wins there. And uh this has the potential, if. successful, to redraw that state in a. profound way that would unlock and. frankly offset a lot of the. gerrymandering that we've seen um uh at. the hands of Republicans. And what makes. this particularly important, particularly vital right now, is that. the Supreme Court of that state is now a.

52 liberal majority. And so that has. also changed during this period of time. I know this quite well because my law. firm is litigating and in fact argued uh. in one of the two cases. So first off. for those who are watching right now to. support Mark's work as he does this work. in the courts uh to make sure that we. have some fairness in what this the maps. across the country look like. Easy step. that everybody can take right now is to. subscribe to Democracy Docket. That's. the news outlet Mark founded to focus on. everything voting in elections. It's.

also a great way to amplify amplify his. voice in this ecosystem. So, I'm going. to put that link right here on the. screen and also in the post description. of this video. Mark, I know a lot of. people are going to listen to this and. say, "Wait, didn't Wisconsin's maps. already uh get litigated in favor of the. Democrats?" And so, can you explain what. the situation here between the. legislative maps and the congressional. maps is? >> Yeah. So, you may remember that the. Supreme Court of Wisconsin was 43. conservative and I and you and I talked.

about it a lot at the time because you. did a lot of work, frankly, to educate. people about the importance of that. election. Remember, this was the big one. where there was like a lot of money. spent on both sides. And that's because. the gap between a 4-3 conservative and. 4-3 liberal was like a chasm. Like, it. wasn't it wasn't a small gap. It was a. huge gap. As soon as the the um the. liberal won that race and it became a. 4-3 liberal uh court, there was a a. challenge to the state legislative maps.

Uh that was successful. It ultimately. settled, but but it was successful. And. that's why you see the legislative maps. now in Wisconsin really, really close. like it went from being very Republican. Jerry Mander now to to being in reach. for Democrats to even potentially hit a. trifecta uh let's hope in uh after. November. The congressional challenges. and again my law firm has been involved. in this from the beginning. Uh those. were not those came later. Those came. after the state legislative uh maps. Uh.

and so what we are dealing with now is. just a very sort of um back and forth. and back and forth in legal theories and. approaches. But, you know, I'm hoping, again, I'm not personally involved in. the Wisconsin case, but lawyers at my. firm are are are centrally involved in. this uh that uh you know, now with this. new 5-2 liberal majority and a chance. for, you know, folks to justices to look. at this with a fresh set of eyes and a. fair approach because there's no way you. would look at the the state of Wisconsin.

and say this is a six to, you know, fair. map. So, we're, you know, we're I'm. hopeful that uh that that this will uh. this will result in a new map. What do you think the timeline could be. in this situation? Um, as far as new. maps are concerned, I know obviously. nothing's going to happen for 2026. The. election is, you know, less than 50 days. away, but is it possible for 2028? >> Absolutely. I mean, the Supreme Court of. the state just heard oral argument. And. if either one of these two cases, and I. should point out there were in fact uh.

there were in fact two cases. One of. them uh was as I as I mentioned brought. uh uh as a partisan gerrymandering case. The second uh was brought by the. Wisconsin by uh Wisconsin business. leaders for democracy and they argued. that it was an anti-competitive. gerrymander. Right? So one said. basically it favored Republicans. The. other said it basically there should. just be more competitive districts. And. if either of those two um uh you know. prevail then you would have new maps and. that presumably you know would happen in. 2027 and plenty of time for 2028.

>> What about the process in Wisconsin? I. know that we've spoken about states like. New York where you first have to amend. the state constitution. Same thing with. Virginia. You first have to amend the. state constitution. In California, the. question had to go to the voters to. temporarily suspend the independent. redistricting commission. So, every. state has its own thing. What is what is. the the process in Wisconsin? And does. it require any supplemental steps to get. there? >> Look, this is the whole point. Like, Democrats are not looking to gerrymander.

in Wisconsin. They are just looking for. fair maps. They're just asking the state. supreme court to put in place fair maps, not and and not allow Republican. gerrymanders to go forward in violation. of the state constitution. That is the. claims that are being made. And again, like these are claims that the court. Supreme Court of Wisconsin has. considered in various compositions in. various cases with various postures. So. look, you know, we'll see what happens. here. You know, it's not like uh. Governor Ivers is trying to draw an 8. Democratic map. They are just looking.

for a map that reflects the fact that. this is a perennial uh swing state in. the presidential. It has a Democratic. senator. It has a Democratic governor. Uh you know and uh and and the. congressional uh representation should. look something like that. >> Who will be the arbiter of what that map. looks like though? Because when you get. into 5 to 3 or 6:2 or 7 to 1, I mean, everything kind of becomes subjective at. that point. And so who is going to be. the the ultimate decider of which map.

gets elected? >> Uh Brian, a lot of that will depend on. the outcome of this midterm elections, right? Because the answer to that. question will look different if there's. a Democratic governor and a Democratic. legislature than if there is a split. between governor and legislature or. there is a Republican, right? Like. because in the first instance, the court. is likely to say, "Well, this map's not. not constitutional under the state. constitution." And the legislature can. always take a shot at redrawing their. maps, right? That's that's like that's. like always an option. Um, if ultimately.

there is split government and they. cannot agree on a map, then the courts. draw the maps and that's that's that's. typically the process in in many places. >> Mark, can you talk for a moment about. Wisconsin as a beacon of hope? And and. what I mean by that is Wisconsin was in. like in the throws of a the strangle. hold of a Republican gerrymander. And. once you're there, it's nearly. impossible to get out because you've got. the maps that were redrawn so that you. know certain uh uh Republican officials.

would basically scientifically engineer. themselves majorities. And then, you. know, once they had enough of a. majority, they could redraw the map, entrench their own majorities, and. basically make it impossible to escape. from that jerrymander. They've been able. to do that. So, we have brand new uh uh. uh composition on the Supreme Court. We. have brand new legislative maps, all of. which are favoring Democrats right now. And and hopefully we'll see this process. play out whereby the congressional map. will be redrawn and we can see Democrats. take a majority on that congressional.

delegation. But can you talk about. Wisconsin again a as uh as something. that other states can look to to. basically do the impossible which is to. escape the the the the strangle hold of. a Republican gerrymander. >> Look, I think that it's a great example. of of [clears throat] how we have to do. politics, right? We we it is a example. of perseverance in the first instance. that that no matter how strong Scott. Walker looked as governor and and the.

entrenched Republican party in the. legislature, no matter how uh impossible. it looked that we would take first the. governor's mansion, then then the then. be, you know, strike down the maps and. become more competitive. No matter how. desperate it looked, as long as you were. persevering, you could be making. progress. But the second part of it, Brian, the second part is that when you. have power, you use it and when you have. an opportunity to take advantage of it. And you wrote a very important new book. called The Day After. And it is about.

how to wield power in the postTrump. world. Now, it is mostly a tale or a. blueprint for what should happen at the. federal level, but honestly, every. governor should read this book. Every. state party should read this book. everyone who wants to figure out how in. this current environment, right, the. postTrump world, like how you need to. when you have power, how you wield it, right? Because it's it's one thing to. win the election and to have that power.

like all around you. Like Joe Biden was. in the White House and there was power. all around him, but I think even his. strongest supporters and you and I were. both, you know, among Joe Biden's. strongest supporters, he did not wield. that power in the way in which we have. now seen it could be done. So I think. that Wisconsin was a good example of how. Democrats in that state wielded power. But there is a lot more we can do and. there is no better guide to it than I. could recommend than The Day After. And.

so I hope you will put a link uh to buy. that book uh in the description of this. episode and perhaps on the screen. >> I will. I I appreciate the shout out. I'll put a link right here on the screen. and also in the post description. If you. haven't grabbed a copy, uh please uh. make sure to grab a copy. Mark, it's. worth asking and I'm going to I'm going. to play devil's advocates my own. question, but you know, there are a lot. of Democrats who I've even spoken with. who just say, you know, in this moment. really what we just got to do is just. make the case to voters. And I'll say, you know, we've got Republicans. undermining the rules at every at every.

turn. And if we're just doing politics. as usual and, you know, trying to to. make the case and reach out to voters. and knock on doors, but they're out here. ragging the rules of the game in in in. their favor, then there is inherently. going to be an asymmetry. And so what. what would your reaction to that be to. say like, yes, it is important to. persevere. It's always important to. persevere, but in light of the fact that. Republicans are are pulling out every.

stop to to just, you know, prove. themselves not even an equal participant. in democracy, they are in a different. system of government. This isn't a. descent into autocracy. It's here as far. as this GOP is concerned, >> right? But the thing is, we need to. recognize that that's what they are. We. need to not make excuses for what they. are. And we need to fight with every. tool available. Like we like honestly we. just need to fight with every tool. available. And every day. >> you and I are confronted with some, you.

know, well-meaning Democrat. >> who is telling us the reasons why we. should not use some tool that is. available to us. >> Yeah. >> And and I just think like you can't do. that. And that's why I recommended the. book because that is I mean without. giving away too much that's kind of one. of your central thesis, right? is that. is that we we just have to use every. tool available. So that rather than you. know beginning the conversation in a. state about redistricting with well we. can't do it because of this and we can't.

do it because of that and we can't do it. I mean I I said this before like you. know if you had asked me in 2025. what state couldn't draw redraw maps I. mean you just say to me Mark you know. where we want your expertise on where we. can redraw maps um uh given the rules as. they are uh give us a list of states. I. would have almost at the top taking. California off the off off the table. because it has such a prescriptive set. of rules. Yeah. For how maps are drawn.

and it's like really you can't game it. Like it is it's like a citizen. commission. It's it's got all of these. things and like the you and and the. folks in California like you guys didn't. let that be the answer. And so when you. look at a number of these other states, you know, you look at a Colorado, you. look at a Maryland and you just kind of. like shrug your shoulders and say, "Well, like how is it possible? We can't. do that here." And, you know, I know. you've had a lot to say about that. >> Yeah. And I I think you're you're. absolutely right. I think it starts with.

a question of will and everything is. downstream from there. And it was clear. that Gavin Newsome and California. Democrats had the will to do this. And. for so many other states, that's the. thing that's missing. And so, you can. figure out a million reasons why. something can't happen. There were. certainly a million reasons why it. couldn't happen in California, but. everybody wanted to make sure that it. got done. And so, it got done. And Trump. himself is showing that all of these. institutions and processes and. traditions are not sacrosanked. He's. doing them for the wrong reasons. He's.

doing them for self-enrichment. He's. doing them for vanity. But if you have. that same desire to get done, to. actually do something, um, but you're. willing to do it for virtuous reasons, uh, you know, that's half of the battle. right there. And so I think you're. exactly right in pointing out that. Democrats have to change their. mentality, uh, when they look forward. And, uh, and obviously I agree with you. that they need to look to to be a lot. more comfortable in terms of wielding. power. But look, I think that that um.

chief among them, you know, we're. talking about redrawing the maps right. now as it relates to Wisconsin, but. before anybody was talking about this on. on the state level, you were advocating. for, okay, if Republicans are going to. try and gerrymander five seats in Texas, Democrats need to offer up some. deterrent effect and jerrymander 30. seats. And frankly, if. >> that was my proposal, my proposal, if. they do five, we do 30. >> verbatim. And frankly, if Democrats had. listened to you all of those years ago. when this whole process uh first uh went.

off, then we wouldn't be in the position. we were that we're in today where, you. know, we're fending off redrawn maps in. 12 different states. But there wasn't. enough of a deterrent effect because. Democrats didn't take your advice. So, I. would highly recommend for anybody who's. watching right now to get that kind of. analysis, to get that kind of advice, uh, not only yourself, but to get it. into the zeitgeist, into this ecosystem. so that our elected officials can. actually listen to this stuff. Uh, the. best way to do that is to support Mark's. work by subscribing to Democracy Docket. That link is right here on the screen.

and also in the post description of this. video. And to see more episodes of. Democracy Watch between the two of us, subscribe to this channel as well. I'm. Brian Taylor Cohen. >> I'm Mark Ela. >> This is Democracy Watch.