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Page Number: 6.0

2 

GILL v. WHITFORD 

Opinion of the Court 

Certain  of  the  plaintiffs  before  us  alleged  that  they  had 
such  a  personal  stake  in  this  case,  but  never  followed  up
with  the  requisite  proof.    The  District  Court  and  this 
Court therefore lack the power to resolve their claims.  We 
vacate  the  judgment  and  remand  the  case  for  further
proceedings,  in  the  course  of  which  those  plaintiffs  may 
attempt to demonstrate standing in accord with the analy­
sis in this opinion. 

I 
Wisconsin’s  Legislature  consists  of  a  State  Assembly
and  a  State  Senate.  Wis.  Const.,  Art.  IV,  §1.    The  99 
members of the Assembly are chosen from single districts 
that  must  “consist  of  contiguous  territory  and  be  in  as 
compact  form  as  practicable.”    §4.  State  senators  are 
likewise  chosen  from  single-member  districts,  which  are 
laid  on  top  of  the  State  Assembly  districts  so  that  three
Assembly  districts  form  one  Senate district.   See §5; Wis. 
Stat. §4.001 (2011).

The  Wisconsin  Constitution  gives  the  legislature  the
responsibility  to  “apportion  and  district  anew  the  mem­
bers  of  the  senate  and  assembly”  at  the  first  session  fol­
lowing each census.  Art. IV, §3.  In recent decades, how­
ever, that responsibility has just as often been taken up by
federal  courts.  Following  the  census  in  1980,  1990,  and 
2000,  federal  courts  drew  the  State’s  legislative  districts
when  the  Legislature  and  the  Governor—split  on  party 
lines—were unable to agree on new districting plans.  The 
Legislature has broken the logjam just twice in the last 40 
years.  In  1983,  a  Democratic  Legislature  passed,  and  a 
Democratic  Governor  signed,  a  new  districting  plan  that 
remained  in  effect  until  the  1990  census.    See  1983  Wis. 
Laws ch. 4.  In 2011, a Republican Legislature passed, and 
a Republican Governor signed, the districting plan at issue 
here, known as Act 43.  See Wis. Stat. §§ 4.009, 4.01–4.99; 
2011  Wis.  Laws  ch. 4.    Following  the  passage  of  Act  43,