(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature are threatening to impeach Justice Protasiewicz [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-06 🚨 RED ALERT: Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature are threatening to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz—before she’s even heard a single case. A desperate, unconstitutional, and obscene threat to democracy… and 2024. Here’s what’s happening and how to fight back. The principle is simple. When voters elect someone, politicians can’t overturn the election just to stay in power. That idea is fundamental to American democracy, a shared understanding around which our government is based. It’s time to help the Wisconsin GOP find out. I’ll explain what’s going on below. But first, know this: the GOP hasn’t acted yet. Most of the public has no idea what the Republican legislature is plotting. So we’re launching a DEFEND JUSTICE campaign to fight back. Get involved here and spread the word: DEFENDJUSTICE.COM What’s in this post: How impeachment works in Wisconsin Why the GOP says they’re doing this… & why it’s BS How we’re gonna fight back 1. HOW IMPEACHMENT WORKS IN WISCONSIN The Wisconsin Constitution specifies that impeachment is reserved for “corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors.” (That’s a problem for Republicans, because Justice Janet hasn’t done any such thing.) It takes a simple majority vote of the State Assembly—50 of the 99 members—to impeach someone. Robin Vos’ GOP caucus has, thanks to gerrymandering, 64 members. They could lose 14 votes and still impeach. If they impeach, Justice Janet would be suspended until after the state Senate trial. Conviction would take a supermajority of Senators present—so if all 33 senators voted, all 22 Republicans would have to support conviction. Every GOP senator could be the deciding vote. If a Supreme Court justice is convicted and removed, it creates a vacancy, which would be filled by Governor Evers. But here’s the thing: if the Senate convicted and removed Justice Janet before December 1, it would trigger another Supreme Court election in April of 2024. That would effectively give the GOP a chance for a do-over on the 2023 election that they lost in a landslide. And in 2024, the election would fall on the same day as the GOP presidential primary, which generally means high GOP turnout. If removal took place after December 1, then the Governor’s appointment would serve at least until 2031 (which is the next year without an already-scheduled Supreme Court election). So, the clock is ticking for the GOP. And there’s a third dastardly aspect of this: if the Assembly impeached but the Senate didn’t even hold a trial, the GOP would effectively sideline Justice Janet, potentially leaving the Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 on issues like maps, abortion, and voting rules. This is uncharted territory. Impeachment (by the Assembly) and removal (by the Senate) would be unprecedented in the state of Wisconsin. The only impeachment trial was in 1853, for a judge who was taking bribes—and no person has ever been convicted and removed from office. 2. WHY THE GOP SAYS THEY’RE DOING THIS, AND WHY IT’S BS Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is threatening to impeach Justice Janet if she doesn’t recuse herself from the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of our gerrymandered maps. Republicans claim that Justice Janet must recuse because, during her campaign, she said that Wisconsin’s legislative maps are rigged. The reality is, though, that statements about political issues don't require recusal in Wisconsin. Read more here. Justices across the political spectrum have histories of statements about issues that don’t require recusal. For example, right-wing Justice Bradley compared abortion to slavery and the holocaust. The conservative justices were very clear: personal views, no recusal required. Yesterday, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission dismissed complaints filed against Justice Protasiewicz over the comments she made—finding there is “no evidence of misconduct.” x BREAKING on @AP A state judiciary disciplinary panel has rejected several complaints lodged against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz that alleged she violated the judicial code of ethics for comments she made during the campaign.https://t.co/JScjvNGL0w — Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) September 5, 2023 So if the court’s own rules don’t require Justice Protasiewicz to recuse, why is Speaker Vos claiming it’s a reason to impeach her? Simple: he’ll do anything to block a Supreme Court that doesn’t do his bidding. Robin Vos’ hold on power crumbles if he doesn’t have a Supreme Court that rubber-stamps gerrymandered maps. If the near-total abortion ban gets a serious constitutional review, Vos is terrified that it will fall. And a Supreme Court that doesn’t suppress votes is his nightmare. So, according to a growing array of sources—including this right-wing talk radio host with deep ties to Vos—the Assembly Speaker gearing up to detonate the political equivalent of a thermonuclear bomb. Let’s call this what it is: a legislative coup. An unconstitutional abuse of power to nullify a landslide election, and erase the votes of 1,021,822 Wisconsinites. And it’s more than that: it would open Pandora’s Box. If a simple majority of the Wisconsin Assembly can suspend a Supreme Court justice for political reasons, what will the legislature do if Trump loses in 2024 but then tries to overturn the election? Remember: in 2020, Trump lost his WI Supreme Court cases by one vote. The pressure from the ultra-MAGA wing of the Wisconsin GOP on Robin Vos (or, if he refused to go along and they dumped him, his successor) would be overwhelming. They could suspend as many justices as they please in order to overturn the next election. To read more about this grim scenario, read this: “The WI GOP’s Doomsday Plan for 2024.” It’s grim stuff. But it’s worth internalizing the magnitude of what the GOP is weighing here. If this cancerous idea succeeded in Wisconsin, it could spread across the country. Laws and the independent judiciary are, legislators might think, such pesky things. Why put up with them, when all it would take is a majority vote to push them aside? This is playing with fire in a dynamite factory. It’s got to stop. So we—everyone who cares about democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, across the political spectrum—have to stop it. 3. HOW WE’RE GONNA FIGHT BACK We’ve got to ensure that this blows up in the GOP’s face. And the simple way to do that… is to tell voters about it. Because voters do not like having their votes erased and their elections overturned. Today marks the kickoff of the Defend Justice campaign—a statewide organizing blitz to ensure that voters—especially the one million Janet Protasiewicz voters—find out what’s happening and how to contact their legislators about it. There are 12 Assembly Republicans and 6 Senate Republicans whose districts voted for Janet Protasiewicz this spring. Those legislators owe it to their constituents to explain how they’d vote if this moved forward. In fact, every legislator owes answers to the public. Tonight, we’ll be knocking on doors, calling voters, texting, friend-banking—a full-court press to get the word out. And this is just the beginning. WisDems will be organizing voters all over the state to spread the word and mobilize people to weigh in. Allies are gearing up to run a flood of ads. All of us can work to make sure every Republican is held accountable. It’s now the urgent priority of every Wisconsinite who cares about democracy to contact their state legislators and urge them to immediately and publicly denounce this impeachment threat—so that Robin Vos and his allies back down. Not a Wisconsin voter? You can help too. Help get the word out. Share this post, or write your own. And chip in at wisdems.org/defendjustice. This is about protecting small-d democracy in Wisconsin, and the country. This is about the fundamentals of our system of government: three co-equal branches, not a dictatorship of the legislature. This is about defending justice. 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