Photo: Janet Protasiewicz for Justice
Janet Protasiewicz
Janet Protasiewicz
We now know what the Republicans who refused to impeach Donald Trump for sending a violent, armed mob of insurrectionists to overthrow American democracy consider a serious enough offense to warrant impeachment.
In Wisconsin, it’s a state Supreme Court justice winning a landslide election to uphold the constitutional rights of women to make their own decisions about their lives and to end 15 years of political corruption preventing voters from electing a state legislature or Congressional representatives that reflect their political views.
Destroying democracy is incredibly popular in today’s Trumped-up party and state Republicans are desperate to impeach newly elected Justice Janet Protesiewicz before the new majority voters elected to the state Supreme Court can abolish Wisconsin’s extreme political gerrymandering. That’s what assures Republicans lopsided control of the legislature even when Democratic candidates win more votes.
There’s no question Republicans have the theoretical political power to impeach Protasiewicz. Their corrupt gerrymandering has produced a huge majority for the Republicans in the Assembly and a veto-proof, two-thirds majorities in the State Senate. But it would still be incredibly stupid politically going into a presidential election for Republicans to overthrow the landslide election of the new Supreme Court majority created by overwhelming margins by state voters in three elections.
Winning the Battleground State
The reason Wisconsin is a battleground state in presidential elections is because it’s a closely divided 50-50 state between Democrats and Republicans. Most national and statewide elections are won or lost by one or two percentage points.
The stunning exceptions were the three State Supreme Court elections of Justices Protasiewicz in April by 11 points, Jill Karofsky in 2020 by 11 points and Rebecca Dallet by 12 points in 2018. Those staggering vote margins were the result of voters’ desire for a Supreme Court that would base its legal decisions on the constitution rather than partisan political advantage for the Republican party.
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The driving issues behind the massive voter turnout electing Protasiewicz were the same ones that will produce an even greater turnout in 2024—restoring reproductive rights for women and free and fair elections for the legislature and Congress that reflect the will of the voters statewide.
Voters knew exactly where Protasiewicz and her rightwing opponent Daniel Kelly stood on abortion rights and voting rights. Protasiewicz told voters she personally supported reproductive rights and supported the court taking “a fresh look” at the gerrymandered voting maps that “do not reflect the people of the state.” Justices should take a fresh look at every issue coming before them.
Like other Republican appointees or candidates for state or federal courts, Kelly pretended he didn’t have any political opinions on those issues, but voters knew he was lying. Kelly was a longtime abortion opponent endorsed by extreme anti-abortion groups. Kelly also was a paid legal advisor to state Republicans creating fake electors in Trump’s criminal scheme to overthrow Biden’s election victory in seven states.
Dirty Political Tricks
Republican legislators are threatening to impeach Protasiewicz unless she recuses herself from a legal case challenging the corrupt Republican gerrymandering of voting districts. They say she’s legally biased against political corruption. Let’s all agree that’s a hilarious sentence. But that’s not how the loosely defined requirements about recusal under the Wisconsin Code of Judicial Ethics works. The rules are primarily aimed at avoiding personal and family conflicts related to financial interests or involvement in related cases.
The rightwing majority previously controlling the court began with the election in 2008 of the brazenly unethical Justice Michael Gableman. Gableman passed an ethics code in name only allowing justices to refuse to recuse themselves from cases benefitting wealthy donors contributing millions of dollars to their elections.
Protasiewicz says she’ll recuse herself from cases brought by the Democratic party because of the millions of dollars it raised for her election. But the party is not involved in either the abortion rights case or the corrupt gerrymandering case that are coming before the court.
Even if Republican legislators succeed in alienating the large majority of Wisconsin voters who elected Protasiewicz by preventing her from protecting abortion rights or creating free and fair elections, they will just be delaying the inevitable.
Gov. Tony Evers will still be able to appoint an equally progressive replacement. Republican legislators may be planning an even more infuriating dirty political trick to try to sabotage the court. If the Assembly votes to impeach Protasiewicz, she would not be permitted to participate in court decisions until she was either acquitted or convicted by the state Senate.
By delaying the senate trial as long as possible, Protasiewicz could be in limbo for months keeping the court locked in a 3-3 tie between the corrupt previous court and the new court elected by an overwhelming majority of state voters.
Democracy is not an impeachable offense. Republicans are on track to assure the largest turnout of angry, anti-Republican voters in state history to finally put the party out of its misery along with their criminal ex-president at the top of the ticket.
