Another former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice advises against impeachment

Another former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is speaking out against pursuing an impeachment against a newly elected liberal judge on the Badger State’s high court.

Former Justice Jon Wilcox told The Associated Press that there was nothing to justify impeachment proceedings for Justice Janet Protasiewicz, which some Republicans called for after the state Supreme Court was asked to consider two redistricting cases over legislative maps.

Wisconsin Republicans pointed to a comment Protasiewicz made during her campaign, when she called the Republican-drawn maps “rigged.” They have threatened impeachment if she does not recuse herself on the cases. 

“I do not favor impeachment,” Wilcox told AP in a telephone interview. “Impeachment is something people have been throwing around all the time. But I think it’s for very serious things.”

Those against the Republicans’ push have argued that removing Protasiewicz would violate the Wisconsin Constitution, which limits impeachment to those who engaged in corrupt conduct in office or committed crimes.

Wilcox, along with former justices David Prosser and Patience Roggensack, were chosen by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) to consider impeachment criteria, according to AP.

Prosser also advised against an impeachment pursuit, arguing he has not seen any evidence of “corrupt conduct,” a term that he claimed isn’t “open to a mere political grievance.”

“To sum up my views, there should be no efforts to impeach Justice Protasiewicz on anything we know now,” Prosser said in a letter to Vos dated Friday, according to documents obtained in a records request by the left-leaning watchdog group American Oversight and first published by AP. “Impeachment is so serious, severe, and rare that it should not be considered unless the subject has committed a crime, or the subject has committed indisputable ‘corrupt conduct’ while ‘in office.'”

Protasiewicz did not say on the campaign trail how she would rule on the redistricting cases, though her comment raised concerns for Republicans looking to maintain their state congressional maps.

Wisconsin, like many other states, was required to redraw its district boundaries following the results of the 2020 census. The Republican-led state Legislature then created maps to help boost the GOP majority in the chambers.

The state Supreme Court last year upheld the Republican-drawn maps.

Just one day after Protasiewicz was sworn onto the bench in August, a coalition of law firms and voting rights advocacy groups filed suit with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, arguing the maps were the result of an unconstitutional gerrymander. 

Vos and other state Republicans have also implicated that the justice’s acceptance of nearly $10 million in donations from the Democratic Wisconsin Party could excessively influence her judgement on cases, AP reported.

Wilcox and Posser’s opposition to a impeachment pursuit follows comments from former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Louis Butler and Janine Geske, who argued in a Wisconsin State Journal column last month that holding impeachment proceedings on Protasiewicz would “not only be inappropriate, but unconstitutional.”