Report: Republicans could force Protasiewicz off redistricting case with Assembly impeachment vote

Report: Republicans could force Protasiewicz off redistricting case with Assembly impeachment vote


https://wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/report-republicans-could-force-protasiewicz-off-redistricting-case-with-assembly-impeachment-vote/



By: Henry Redman - August 28, 2023 3:07 pm


Justice Protasiewicz Investiture - left to right Justice Protasiewicz, Husband Greg Sell, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley | Examiner photo



The Republicans in control of the Wisconsin Legislature could keep the state Supreme Court’s liberals from hearing cases with a simple majority vote in the Assembly, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

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Under Wisconsin law, impeachment requires a simple majority vote in the Assembly with a two-thirds majority required in the Senate to remove an official from office. If a Supreme Court justice were impeached, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would be able to appoint someone else to fill the seat.

On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that a successful Assembly impeachment vote would force a justice to stop hearing or weighing in on any cases while the Senate waits to hold a vote on removal. The Senate could delay taking a vote, effectively sidelining Protasiewicz and suspending the court’s liberal majority indefinitely while preventing Evers from filling an impeached justice’s seat, since that seat wouldn’t technically be vacant.

In recent years, Wisconsin Republicans have regularly moved to strip powers from elected Democrats. Before Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul took office in 2018, Republicans voted to strip them of certain responsibilities. Republicans in the Senate have also gone years without holding confirmation votes on Evers’ appointees to cabinet-level positions and important state boards. In 2019, after taking issue with comments about rural mental health made by Brad Pfaff, the then-secretary designee of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Senate Republicans finally held a confirmation vote for him and fired him from the position.

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) says she thinks the Republicans moving forward with impeachment would blow up politically for them.

“I think politically it would be disastrous for them, that’s because the margin of Justice Janet’s victory was so huge,” she says. “It wasn’t like a fluke. So it would definitely be the most egregious abuse of their power. It would also be totally ineffective because the governor would simply appoint another liberal justice. I understand there are some extremely angry Republicans in the caucus, in the legislative caucuses, who are really hell-bent on destroying everything. Hopefully there are enough Republicans who still see political reality and realize what a terrible idea it would be to go down that path.”

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