The Wisconsin plan to overturn an election

A liberal just won a state Supreme Court seat. Republicans want to strip her power.

Wisconsin Republicans are already thinking of impeachment for the state's newest Supreme Court justice, Insider reported. Janet Protasiewicz handily won her seat in April on a platform heavily focused on abortion rights, giving the court a 4-3 liberal majority after a long period of conservative control. But it's her criticism of the state's legislative maps — which she called "rigged" during the campaign, and have given the GOP a lock on power in Madison — that have earned Republican ire.

The GOP argument is that Protasiewicz "prejudged" a case challenging the state's legislative maps when she called them "rigged," Ian Millhiser wrote for Vox. But the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that candidates for office have a right to "publicly state their positions on contentious legal issues." The real point here, though, is that knocking Protasiewicz off the court would almost certainly leave the maps in place, making the GOP impeachment push a "plan that could entrench their rule forever."

In fact, impeachment would only be successful because of Wisconsin's gerrymandering, Philip Bump wrote at The Washington Post. Republicans have "disproportionate power" in the Wisconsin Legislature because of aggressive map drawing, and now they're "using that disproportionate power in consideration of impeachment and removal." In essence, gerrymandered power is being used to defend gerrymandered power. And that raw display is drawing national attention.

. . .

#Wisconsin #fascist #authoritarianism #republican #legislators #WisconsinStateSupremeCourt #politics