MADISON, Wis. (AP) 鈥 Wisconsin's Republican Assembly leader announced Wednesday that he's created a panel to investigate the criteria for impeachment as he mulls taking that unprecedented step against a liberal state Supreme Court justice.
Republicans are targeting Justice Janet Protasiewicz over comments she made during her winning campaign about and nearly $10 million in donations she received from the state Democratic Party.
The impeachment criteria panel being created by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will consist of three former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices whom Vos told The Associated Press he would not name until after their work is done. Vos said they were not being paid and he expected their work to be complete in the 鈥渘ext few weeks.鈥
The move to further investigate possible impeachment against Protasiewicz comes the day after Vos and Republicans , modeled after the law in Iowa, where new maps would be drawn by nonpartisan legislative staff and be approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature for 2024.
But Gov. Tony Evers said he would veto the plan and advocates criticized it because it gives the Legislature the ability to draw maps if those created by the nonpartisan staff are rejected two times. Vos called that argument a 鈥渞ed herring.鈥
鈥淚f somehow you think we鈥檙e going to sneak through a Republican map that has some kind of favor and get Tony Evers鈥 signature on it, I think you鈥檙e smoking something," Vos said Wednesday on WisconsinEye. 鈥滻t鈥檚 not going to happen."
Vos said that offering the redistricting bill was an 鈥渙ff-ramp鈥 to impeachment, which he called a 鈥渓ast option.鈥
鈥淭hey're making it seem like I鈥檓 foaming at the mouth to have an impeachment process," Vos said on WISN-AM where he announced the formation of the impeachment review panel. "But that is the last thing I want to have happen which is why we have taken what I would say is a pretty radical step to offer a different path.鈥
Protasiewicz joined the court on Aug. 1, of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from conservative to liberal for the first time in 15 years.
Republicans have called on Protasiewicz to recuse herself from a pair of Democratic-backed seeking to overturn GOP-drawn maps. Republicans argue that she because she called the current maps 鈥渦nfair鈥 and 鈥渞igged鈥 during the campaign and accepted nearly $10 million from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
She has yet to decide on recusal in those cases. But she did recuse from another lawsuit filed this week asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to block any attempts by the Legislature to impeach Protasiewicz. It is up to each justice to decide whether to recuse from a case.
The state鈥檚 judicial code prohibits justices and judicial candidates from making promises or commitments to ruling a certain way on any issue, and Protasiewicz adhered to that during her campaign. Earlier this year, the state commission that investigates complaints against judges it had received related to her comments on redistricting.
All but one justice on the Supreme Court has from political parties and on hot-button issues before winning an election.
Vos said it was his 鈥渃onstitutional duty鈥 to look into impeachment. He told the AP that former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who Vos hired to lead an investigation into the 2020 election and then called an 鈥渆mbarrassment鈥 and fired, would not be one of them.
Dan Kelly, a former justice whom Protasiewicz defeated in April, told the AP that he was not on the panel either.
That leaves just seven living former justices from Vos to pick from. Former conservative Justice Patience Roggensack, whose retirement created the vacancy Protasiewicz filled, did not return a message asking if she was on the panel.
Impeachment is permitted under the Wisconsin Constitution only for corrupt conduct in office or for the commission of a crime. It takes a simple majority in the Assembly to impeach and a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict.
Republicans hold a 64-35 majority in the Assembly and a two-thirds 22-11 majority in the Senate. They built those large majorities on the maps they drew in 2011, viewed as among the in the country, which have been upheld by the state Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservatives.
If the Assembly impeached her, Protasiewicz would be barred from any duties as a justice until the Senate acted. That could effectively stop her from voting on redistricting without removing her from office and creating a vacancy that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would fill.
If she is convicted by the Senate or resigns, and there is a vacancy before Dec. 1, that would trigger an April election to fill out the remainder of her 10-year term. Protasiewicz in April by 11 points.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that there are nine living, former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, not seven.
