Process Doesn't Matter? Federal Court In Redistricting Case Disagrees

I'm getting information about the exciting redistricting ruling in Milwaukee federal court today, where the three-judge panel found the contested Hispanic district illegally-drawn, and where the judges - - led by Reagan appointee J. P. Stadtmueller - - lambasted the GOP legislature for its secretive process.

The rest of the state's districts were left as they were redrawn, the Journal Sentinel reports.

Remember when a lawyer for the state told the judges during testimony that process didn't matter?

Apparently, and thankfully, it does.

Fitzwalkerstan begins to be unwound - - let Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald deal with this ruling during his recall election.

More later, but for your reading pleasure:

We know there isn't a separation between mind and body, and when it comes to law and the body politic, there's no disconnect between process and substance, either.

Local examples abound:

Federal judges hearing the redistricting case brought by Democrats and a grass-roots immigrant organization about how Republican legislators and their attorneys conducted the drafting of redistricting maps and legislation have issued statements and orders from the bench - and even a hefty fine over frivolous defense motions - that were critical of secretive legislating and the withholding of documents.

An assistant attorney general opined to the judges that "the process of legislation is not on trial." So it will be interesting to see whether the judges agree when they release their ruling - but you'd hope that with the phrase "due process" in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that process in a case about voting rights would not get short shrift.