A Wisconsin judge has dismissed a liberal watchdog group’s complaint that a Republican-led panel examining the potential impeachment of the state’s newest Supreme Court justice violated its open meeting laws.
The panel specifically targets Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a Democrat, who won a high-profile election in April, tipping the balance of power to the left for the first time in 15 years. Protasiewicz has refused to recuse herself from several high-profile cases, including a redistricting case that could have a major say on the outcome of the 2024 election. Protasiewicz campaigned heavily on the case, saying she wants to see the districts redrawn.
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As a result, in September, Republican Assembly Speaker Rob Vos asked former state Supreme Court justices David Prosser, Pat Roggensack, and Jon Wilcox to advise on whether impeaching Protasiewicz would be justified.
That in turn prompted the complaint from watchdog American Oversight, which claimed the panel's private meetings violated the state's open meetings law and sued to make the information public.
In his ruling Tuesday, Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington wrote that the group filed its claim prematurely and should have given District Attorney Ismael Ozanne more time to decide whether to launch his own lawsuit. Remington did, however, allow the group to continue seeking records from the panel.
Vos filed a motion to dismiss the open meeting violation claims, arguing that Ozanne needed to be granted 20 days to refuse or fail to launch an investigation, neither of which he did.
Remington wrote in his ruling that the panel was a government body created by order of the Assembly speaker and that it met in secret, but American Oversight failed to give Ozanne the time allotted to refuse to investigate and therefore was barred from filing a lawsuit.
Earlier this month, Remington gave Roggensack 30 days to "produce all records within her possession relating to her work as a member of the panel." Vos, Prosser, and Wilcox have all produced documents related to the panel.
The panel itself has been shrouded in secrecy, with Vos and Prosser at one point refusing to reveal who was on the three-person team. Vos’s attorneys also argued at one point that there was no “secret panel.”
Following Remington’s ruling, American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer said the lawsuit still resulted in documents getting released to the public “that otherwise might have remained shrouded in darkness.”
Last month, Prosser and Wilcox advised Vos that Protasiewicz’s campaign remarks did not rise to an impeachable offense. It is unclear where Roggensack stands.
Amid the backdrop of the panel dispute, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is still hearing challenges to political maps, with Protasiewicz holding her place on the bench.
Critics claim the state's current political maps are unfair and have led to Republicans having a lock on political power. The GOP holds a two-thirds supermajority in the state Senate and also outnumbers Democrats in the Assembly.
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Democrats believe the gerrymandered maps do not reflect fair representation, and attorneys on behalf of 19 voters who represent the districts the Democrats want to recast argued that the maps should be changed.
Wisconsin is one of the country's most politically competitive states, and how the high court decides the case could have a major impact on state and national politics — including a potential presidential rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.