State agrees to pay $257,000 in redistricting case

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The state has entered into a settlement to pay more than $257,000 in attorneys' fees in a lawsuit brought by a group of Democrats who sued over newly drawn legislative boundaries.
 
The agreement to pay $257,500 to the law firm of Godfrey and Kahn was filed in federal court in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
 
The deal was agreed to by those who brought the lawsuit and the state Department of Justice.
 
Democrats and an immigrant-rights group challenged the constitutionality of the maps drawn by the Republican Legislature last year. They alleged in part that a new boundary unfairly divided one solid Latino bloc into two weaker ones.
 
A panel of three federal judges upheld most of the borders but ordered that a boundary between two Hispanic-rich Milwaukee districts be adjusted.