Discussions about the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices and our legislative maps usually miss two key aspects.

Republicans say Justice Protasiewicz should recuse herself from any cases involving Wisconsin's legislative district maps because she labeled them rigged. They threaten to impeach her if she doesn't recuse.

They then must impeach the remaining justices who voted to approve or disapprove these maps in 2021. Their rulings on the maps are stronger than Protasiewicz' campaign trail opinion.

The four conservative justices' standard for approving the maps was that they stay as close as possible to the radically gerrymandered maps the Republicans drew up in secret in 2011. Perhaps the three remaining should be impeached for that since that standard is certainly not in our Constitution or laws.

What Wisconsin needs is an open, thorough arguing of the constitutionality and legality of the current legislative maps combined with guidelines on what constitutes fair legislative maps. Do the maps retain present political boundaries as closely as possible; do they have the same population, are as compact as possible; do they allow voters ,including minorities, to have representation in the legislature? Are the districts designed from the voters perspective, ignoring the residency of legislators or candidates?

Bill Dagnon,
Baraboo