State attorneys: Lawmakers should redraw maps in 2018

MADISON — State attorneys are trying to convince a panel of federal judges that Republican lawmakers should be allowed to redraw legislative boundaries in 2018.

The judges ruled in November that district boundaries GOP legislators drew up in 2011 were unconstitutional but didn't order any immediate changes. Democrats filed a brief last month saying a federal court should redraw the boundaries; the state Justice Department filed a brief the same day said no new maps should be drawn until after the U.S. Supreme Court hears the agency's appeal.

DOJ lawyers filed a new brief Thursday saying if the maps must be redrawn the Legislature should do it and there's no need to act before early 2018, since that's the year the next round of legislative elections will take place.