Contiguous Wisconsin Districts

[Trivia: The “Big 4” of occupational therapy, developed by Adolf Meyer, are what 4 broad categories of human activity?]

ProPublica’s something of a mixed bag these days, but they had one well-done piece recently on legislative maps in Wisconsin.

For those just joining us, Wisconsin’s state laws are made by people elected to either house of the state legislature, one lawmaker per “district.” The districts are drawn on maps, and to keep up with changes in population, the maps are routinely redrawn (every 10 years).

The state’s constitution requires that the maps partition the state into districts that are “contiguous.” In fact, every state except for Nevada has such a requirement for their maps.

But some Wisconsin districts . . . aren’t contiguous.

What gives?

It turns out that Wisconsin is already partitioned into the more permanent municipal boundaries that belong to towns, villages, and cities. (Those aren’t just synonyms; under Wisconsin state law, those are three different types of entities, and every bit of Wisconsin territory is covered by something that is one of those three.) But those need not be contiguous—and often aren’t. It’s been typical for growing cities and villages to annex parts of town land (the sparsely populated, low-infrastructure default for Wisconsin territory) even if those parts aren’t actually adjacent.

And since preserving municipal borders is a consideration (though by no means an overriding priority) in drawing maps like these, then drawing district lines to preserve those separations has been treated as valid. One part of a city is considered “contiguous” to the nearest other parts of land belonging to that same city for these purposes.

Whether this argument passes constitutional muster is currently up for litigation at the Wisconsin Supreme Court, occasioning ProPublica’s discussion of it. It’s certainly been done for a long time, has other lines in the state constitution obliquely suggesting it’s valid, and has an internal logic to it.

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