Judicial panel dismisses GOP attempt to remove liberal justice from key cases

The Wisconsin Judicial Commission dismissed a handful of complaints Republicans filed against newly sworn-in state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, thwarting one method the GOP is employing to prevent the liberal justice from ruling on a pair of critical cases before the court.

In January, Republicans filed complaints with the commission accusing Protasiewicz of violating the Wisconsin Code of Judicial Conduct during the spring Supreme Court election. Republicans alleged that Protasiewicz’s comments, in which she called the Republican gerrymander “rigged” and said that she supports abortion rights, put “a thumb on the scale for issues most important to her far-left agenda.”

“Janet Protasiewicz has decided to disregard her obligation to abide by the Code of Judicial Conduct in her pursuit of a place on the Supreme Court,” Wisconsin GOP Executive Director Mark Jefferson said in a statement. “The Judicial Commission must act and Protasiewicz clearly must recuse herself from participating in cases involving redistricting, abortion and Act 10 union reforms because she’s absolutely unwilling to hear them with an open mind.”

On Sept. 6, the Associated Press reported that the judiciary panel dismissed the Republican complaints against Protasiewicz.

Wisconsin Republicans want Protasiewicz to recuse herself from two key cases before the state Supreme Court. One could overturn the state’s 1849 abortion ban, while the other would throw out the GOP’s gerrymander of Wisconsin’s legislative and congressional maps that give Republicans a permanent majority in the state Legislature and U.S. House of Representatives.

The current district maps do not fairly represent Wisconsin’s electorate, which can be seen by recent statewide election results. In 2020, President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by 49.6% to 48.9%. In 2022, Wisconsin voters reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over Republican nominee Tim Michels by 51.2% to 47.8%. In an April 2023 special election, Protasiewicz defeated her conservative challenger, former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, by 55.5% to 45.5%.

When Protasiewicz took her seat on the bench in August, she flipped control of the court from conservative to liberal. She handily won the April election to a 10-year term on the court, defeating Kelly by 10 points, a landslide in the otherwise purple state.

If Protasiewicz does not recuse herself from the cases, Republicans have threatened to impeach and remove her from office — something they could do with their large majorities in the Legislature.

“This is a red alert for democracy and the rule of law,” Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told CNN. “Republicans are threatening to use a constitutional mechanism that’s reserved for the greatest of crises as a means for a power grab.”

The New York Times reported that the Wisconsin Democratic Party is planning a $4 million effort to inform Wisconsinites of the GOP effort to impeach Protasiewicz to hold on to their legislative majorities and keep Wisconsin’s abortion ban in place.

“They’re deliberately trying to overturn the will of the people,” Sarah Godlewski, Wisconsin’s Democratic secretary of state, told the New York Times. “We have to understand the risk this is posing. It’s a potential reality that would put Wisconsin’s democracy in jeopardy.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.