Ex-Wisconsin Supreme Court justices blast GOP impeachment push

Two former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices — one appointed by a Democratic governor and one appointed by a Republican — rebuked a push by Republicans to consider impeaching a newly elected liberal justice on the state’s high court. 

Former Supreme Court Justices Louis Butler and Janine Geske argued in a column published in the Wisconsin State Journal Thursday that a move by Republicans in the state Legislature to potentially hold impeachment proceedings on liberal Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz would “not only be inappropriate, but unconstitutional.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and other Republicans in the Badger State are considering impeaching Protasiewicz after the state Supreme Court was asked to consider two redistricting cases over the state’s legislative maps. 

Republicans point to her comments when she was running for a vacant seat on the state Supreme Court earlier this year in which she called the state’s maps “rigged” as well as her receiving nearly $10 million from the state Democratic Party.

The GOP said that if she doesn’t recuse herself in the cases, they could consider an impeachment even though she did not say on the campaign trail how she would rule on a potential redistricting challenge. The state Democratic Party is not a plaintiff in either of the cases. 

Butler, who was appointed by former Gov. Jim Doyle (D), and Geske, who was appointed to serve by former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R), argued that nothing that Protasiewicz has done has risen to the level in the state’s Constitution as an impeachable offense, noting that the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects a judicial candidate’s comments.

They also argued that previous rules and court decisions dictate that only Protasiewicz can decide on whether she needs to recuse herself to a case. 

Regarding concerns over potential conflicts of interest related to campaign contributions, the former justices said, “Wisconsin’s Code of Judicial Conduct says that campaign donations alone should not be considered grounds for recusal in a case, and gives judges the sole discretion to decide whether a conflict exists that would prevent them from giving a fair ruling.”

So far, Protasiewicz has not said whether she would recuse herself from the cases. The potential impeachment against the liberal justice comes as the GOP is still reeling from the spring election. Protasiewicz’s win flipped the high court to a 4-3 liberal majority, the first time in 15 years.

Though a redistricting lawsuit following the state Supreme Court race was anticipated, the former justices slammed Republicans whom they said “have tried to erode the court’s independence and make it beholden to the Legislature and its clear partisan agenda.”

“Wisconsinites deserve a justice system where justices are allowed to do their jobs, and to decide cases fairly and impartially — without threats from the Legislature in a case where it seeks to be a party, thereby chilling a justice’s ability to make the very decision that justice was elected to make,” they added. “This is what the constitution demands and what’s necessary for our democratic system of justice to work.”