Redistricting Case Argument Ended Friday; Decision In A Few Weeks

So ends the courtroom phase of our education about the making of Wisconsin's legislative district maps - - perhaps set in stone for a decade, or not - - with a three-judged Federal panel now deciding if the maps are Constitutional.

A tip of the hat to the court for having forced out documents and discussions and methods held and carried out secretly by Republican legislators and their attorneys - - secrets intended to be kept locked away from the public for partisan reasons.

If legislating is like making sausage, this legislators' process and product were, to quote last Saturday's editorial Journal Sentinel about a separate piece of GOP legislating - - the Assembly's mining bill - - "rancid."

Overhaul the state's mining regulations: We aren't fans of the Assembly bill to relax mining laws, and we think Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's in-your-face power play to try to shove that rancid piece of legislation down the throats of Wisconsin's citizens was ill-advised. But there is still time to push through a reasonable bill. All it would take is a little reasonableness on the part of Fitzgerald and his brother, Jeff, the Assembly speaker. Yes, we think that's possible. Hundreds of jobs in the economically depressed North Woods are at stake. There is no reason to destroy the village to save it, Mr. Majority Leader.