- Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom Justice Janet Protasiewicz on Tuesday launched a letter from the state’s Judicial Fee, which knowledgeable her that “a number of” ethics complaints in opposition to her had been dismissed.
- The complaints pertained to statements made on the marketing campaign path throughout an unusually high-profile race, which wound up being the costliest judicial election in American historical past.
- Amongst Protasiewicz’s extra controversial feedback had been these calling Wisconsin’s legislative maps “unfair” and “rigged,” which have led to requires her recusal from redistricting-related instances.
A state judiciary disciplinary panel has rejected a number of complaints lodged in opposition to Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom Justice Janet Protasiewicz that alleged she violated the judicial code of ethics for feedback she made throughout the marketing campaign. It is a setback to Republicans who argued these remarks might warrant impeachment.
Protasiewicz on Tuesday launched a letter from the Wisconsin Judicial Fee informing her that “a number of complaints” relating to feedback she had made throughout the marketing campaign had been dismissed with out motion.
The fee’s actions are non-public except launched by one of many events concerned. Protasiewicz acquired permission from the fee to launch its Could 31 letter to her, which she then offered to The Related Press.
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Protasiewicz’s win in April flipped majority management of Wisconsin’s Supreme Courtroom from conservative to liberal for the primary time in 15 years. Democrats closely backed her marketing campaign, throughout which Protasiewicz criticized Republican-drawn electoral maps and spoke in favor of abortion rights.
In latest weeks, Republican lawmakers have been floating the potential for impeaching Protasiewicz over her feedback calling the legislative maps they drew “unfair” and “rigged.”
Protasiewicz by no means promised to rule a method or one other on redistricting or abortion instances.
She took workplace in August, and in her first week, two lawsuits in search of to overturn the Republican-drawn legislative electoral maps had been filed by Democratic-friendly teams. The Supreme Courtroom has but to resolve whether or not to listen to the instances, and Protasiewicz has not responded to a movement from the Republican-controlled Legislature that she recuse herself from the instances.
Protasiewicz despatched the fee’s order Tuesday to attorneys within the redistricting instances, ordering them to reply by Sept. 18 on the way it impacts the request that she recuse herself from the lawsuits.
A lawsuit in a county courtroom in search of to overturn Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban was filed earlier than Protasiewicz gained election. That case is predicted to finally attain the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom.
The Wisconsin Republican Social gathering in February launched one grievance filed in opposition to Protasiewicz by Randall Cook dinner, a Republican supporter. His grievance alleged that Protasiewicz had declared how she would rule on instances associated to abortion and redistricting, in violation of provisions of the state judicial code.
“Wisconsin has by no means seen a Supreme Courtroom Justice so openly declare how she would rule on a case earlier than it ever got here to the Courtroom, and we had hoped the ideas of equal justice could be severely thought of by the Judicial Fee, regardless of their liberal bias,” Wisconsin Republican Social gathering Chairperson Brian Schimming stated in an announcement. “It was clearly asking an excessive amount of.”
Within the letter to Protasiewicz, Judicial Fee Govt Director Jeremiah Van Hecke referred to “a number of complaints” it had acquired and dismissed with out motion. The letter stated the complaints pertained to feedback she had made at a Jan. 9 candidate discussion board and a number of other interviews in December and January.
The complaints additionally alleged that she had made false feedback about her opponent, Republican-backed Dan Kelly, in two marketing campaign advertisements and in social media posts, in keeping with the fee’s letter.
Janet Protasiewicz speaks after being sworn in as a Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom justice, Aug. 1, 2023, in Madison, Wisconsin. (AP Picture/Morry Gash, File)
The fee didn’t give a cause for why it dismissed the complaints, however Van Hecke stated that it had reviewed her feedback, the judicial code of ethics, state Supreme Courtroom guidelines, and related choices by the state and U.S. supreme courts.
In one of many instances cited, a federal courtroom in Wisconsin dominated there’s a distinction between a candidate stating private views throughout a marketing campaign and making a pledge, promise or dedication to ruling in a sure manner.
Protasiewicz declined to touch upon the fee’s motion.
The nine-member Judicial Fee is likely one of the few avenues by which individuals can problem the actions of Supreme Courtroom justices. It’s tasked with investigating judges and courtroom commissioners who’re accused of violating the state’s judicial code of conduct. Its members embody two attorneys and two judges appointed by the Supreme Courtroom and 5 non-lawyers appointed by the governor to three-year phrases.
Republican members of the state Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday and final month grilled judicial ethics commissioners up for reappointment about when justices and judges ought to recuse themselves from instances, particularly in the event that they name a case “rigged,” a transparent allusion to Protasiewicz’s marketing campaign remarks.
Republicans, together with Meeting Speaker Robin Vos, allege Protasiewicz has prejudged redistricting instances pending earlier than the Supreme Courtroom due to feedback she made throughout her marketing campaign. In addition they say she will’t pretty hear the instances as a result of she took almost $10 million in marketing campaign donations from the Wisconsin Democratic Social gathering, which didn’t file the lawsuits however has lengthy pushed for brand spanking new maps.
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Vos stated Protasiewicz should recuse herself from any Wisconsin redistricting case and the fee’s letter solely “muddies the waters.”
“The Judicial Fee determined Justice Protasiewicz couldn’t be sanctioned for what she stated on the marketing campaign path,” Vos stated in an announcement. “The Fee didn’t handle whether or not she will sit on a case after accepting $10 million in marketing campaign funds from the Democrat Social gathering — the celebration within the redistricting case. Nor did they handle whether or not she could sit on a case having made commitments for the way she would rule which might be inconsistent with the duty to be neutral.”
The legislative electoral maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 cemented the celebration’s majorities, which now stand at 65-34 within the Meeting and a 22-11 supermajority within the Senate. It might take solely 50 votes to question. It takes 22 votes to convict within the Senate, the precise variety of seats Republicans maintain.
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If the Meeting impeaches her, Protasiewicz could be barred from any duties as a justice till the Senate acted. That might successfully cease her from voting on redistricting with out eradicating her from workplace and making a emptiness that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would fill.