Liberal groups, long accustomed to seeing the court as hostile terrain, quickly maneuvered for potential victories on a string of major issues, including abortion.
Janet Protasiewicz waves to the crowd after her swearing-in ceremony in Madison, Wis., on Aug. 1.
The turnaround on the Wisconsin court is the result of an April election that became the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, with campaigns and interest groups spending more than $50 million. Conservatives for decades had the upper hand in supreme court races in key states by fielding judges and prosecutors as candidates, sharpening tough-on-crime messages and securing the support of deep-pocketed groups aligned with Republicans. But in recent years, liberals in Wisconsin have recruited candidates with similar backgrounds and seized on popular political themes. The state Democratic Party, meanwhile, has poured millions of dollars into what are ostensibly nonpartisan races.
Liberals have gone on offense. One group on the left filed a lawsuit over voting rules even before Protasiewicz was sworn in and two sets of Democratic voters filed a pair of redistricting cases within days of her taking office. A week later, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul asked a trial judge to quickly rule on the abortion rights lawsuit in a move that could get the case to the high court faster.
“I think legal action is not good for the court,” she said. “Honestly, I’m sad that it’s even come to the point where that might be discussed.” Koschnick - a conservative who made an unsuccessful run for state Supreme Court in 2009 - recently filed ethics complaints against the four liberal justices. In an appearance on a conservative radio show, he called one justice a “Marxist in a black robe,” accused the liberals of “taking a wrecking ball” to constitutional governance and discussed impeaching the liberals.
Soon afterward, Vos and other Republican lawmakers filed a motion seeking to push Protasiewicz off the redistricting cases because of her campaign comments and the $10 million she received from the state Democratic Party. The decision on whether to step aside is up to Protasiewicz because conservatives on the court in 2011 issued a 4-3 decision that found justices cannot force one another off cases. If Protasiewicz remains on the case, the Republicans could ask the U.S.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox, a conservative, said he thought the liberals were out of line and feared their actions were the outgrowth of increasingly partisan court races.
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