GOP-led Wisconsin impeachment panel sued by liberal watchdog over ‘secrecy’

A liberal watchdog group filed a lawsuit on Monday against a three-person Republican-led panel investigating possible impeachment charges against Justice Janet Protasiewicz, Wisconsin’s newest and most liberal state Supreme Court judge.

The lawsuit, brought by American Oversight, is asking a judge to order the panel to make its meetings public, arguing it is a government body and that meeting in secret is a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Law, according to the complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.

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The complaint also asks the district attorney to void any actions the panel has taken that do not comply with the law and to take steps to prevent further closed-door meetings from taking place. 

“[Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos] has convened a secret panel to quickly craft recommendations for the potential impeachment of a newly elected state Supreme Court justice — a fundamentally anti-democratic action that is of great public importance and interest,” American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer said in a written statement. “His efforts to shroud the work and the identities of the panelists in secrecy violates Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law as well as the state’s strong and well-established commitment to government transparency. We urge immediate action by the District Attorney and are prepared to take this matter to court to vindicate the public’s right to know what its government is doing behind closed doors.”

(AP Photos)

Vos established the panel of three former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices in secret earlier this month and has vowed to impeach the high court newcomer before she rules on a single case as part of a last-ditch effort to prevent the now 4-to-3 liberal majority from throwing out legislative maps that strongly favor the GOP, as well as to stop a push to legalize abortion and efforts to chip away at Republican laws passed over the years. Impeaching Protasiewicz is one of the few tools left in the Republican lawmakers’ arsenal.

“This complaint is without merit and shows how desperate the Left is to change the subject away from the more important issue of the recusal of Justice Protasiewicz,” Vos said in a statement on Monday.

Calls for Protasiewicz’s impeachment gained momentum after Wisconsin Assembly Republicans passed a sweeping redistricting reform bill that Vos called an “off ramp” to impeachment while Republicans in the upper chamber voted to fire the state’s nonpartisan elections director. Together, the moves give the Republicans leverage in a state in which four of the past six presidential elections were decided by less than 1 percentage point.

On the campaign trail, Protasiewicz turned heads by pushing her positions on topics she may have to rule on, including the GOP-drawn electoral maps, which she described as “rigged” and “unfair.”

(AP Photo/Morry Gash)

“Let’s be clear here — the maps are rigged, bottom line. Absolutely, positively rigged. They do not reflect the people in this state,” she said during one candidate forum.

Despite her comments, she said she could not say how she would decide on a case about the maps, something Republicans scoffed at.

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“If there is any semblance of honor on the state Supreme Court left, you cannot have a person who runs for the court prejudging a case and being open about it, and then acting on the case as if you’re an impartial observer,” Vos said during an interview with WSAU radio.

The effort to oust Protasiewicz, who was sworn in on Aug. 1, puts Wisconsin politics into nearly uncharted waters. Lawmakers have only impeached a judge once, in 1853.