Wisconsin Republicans are considering impeaching a newly elected liberal Supreme Court justice in the state over comments she made as a candidate about redistricting and for receiving donations from the state Democratic Party.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos ® announced this week the formation of an impeachment criteria panel as Republicans weigh ousting Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose win in April established a 4-3 liberal majority on the court.
Protasiewicz has yet to hear a case, but the high court was asked in August to hear several cases on Wisconsin’s legislative maps.
Republicans point to previous comments Protasiewicz made about the state’s maps, in which she called calling them “rigged.”
Protasiewicz declined to say during the election how she would rule on the issue, and she has not determined whether she will recuse herself from the case.
They’ll have fun losing by trying. She shouldn’t recuse herself because we all know it’s their last grasp of power in Wisconsin. Let the voters choose, and they chose liberals, not Republicans.
How could they lose? They have the necessary majorities in both chambers.
With Gov. Evers responsible for choosing her replacement (including just re-appointing Protasiewicz) even if she is impeached this is likely just delaying the inevitable. Also she won by such a large margin (55-44) that a clear power grab over a popular political figure in the state that will ultimately not amount to much will just hurt R’s even more in 2024, especially under non-gerrymandered maps.
House impeaches -> Senate convicts -> Gov. Evers chooses replacement
OR
House impeaches ~> Senate does nothing leaving Protasiewicz permanently suspended under Wisconsin law -> Protasiewicz resigns -> Gov. Evers chooses replacement
Either way I feel Republicans are just delaying the inevitable here. The only downside to option 2 is that instead of a ten year term, she would get a one year term. But Protasiewicz won by such a large margin already, that it might even boost dems up and down the ballot if she were forced to run again due to these anti-democratic hostile takeovers.
One wi Dem should sponsor the motion and then add the conservative justices to it as well.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos ® announced this week the formation of an impeachment criteria panel as Republicans weigh ousting Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose win in April established a 4-3 liberal majority on the court.
Two recent lawsuits have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to rule the entire legislative map for 2024 should be redrawn.
Still, Republicans believe the liberal justice should recuse herself from considering either of the cases, though experts say there are protections in place for judicial candidates to be able to speak on legal issues.
Former conservative state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser confirmed to The Associated Press that Vos had reached out to him.
“I think actually the creation of that panel would seem to slow the timeline for a possible impeachment down, at least a little bit,” Yablon said, adding later, “… [H]e is, it sounds like, going to have these retired judges look into it for maybe several weeks.”
“An emergency, temporary restraining order is warranted in these circumstances as the mere act of an unconstitutional impeachment, even without a conviction, would nullify the vote of over one million Wisconsin voters, including and specifically those of the Petitioners,” it adds.
The original article contains 1,168 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
