{"id":11782,"date":"2023-09-24T15:44:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T15:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11782"},"modified":"2023-09-24T15:44:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T15:44:38","slug":"the-republican-partys-plan-to-rule-the-state-of-wisconsin-forever-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11782","title":{"rendered":"The Republican Party\u2019s plan to rule the state of Wisconsin forever, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The state\u2019s legislature is so aggressively gerrymandered that it is likely impossible for Republicans to lose control of it<\/a> in an election. In 2018, for example, Democratic state assembly candidates received 54 percent of the popular vote in Wisconsin, but Republicans still won 63 of the assembly\u2019s 99 seats<\/a>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, however, a light at the end of this tunnel both for small-d democrats and for large-D Democrats in the notoriously contentious swing state. Last April, Justice JanetProtasiewicz won a landslide election victory over a former, very conservative state justice. She took her seat at the beginning of August, giving Democrats a 4-3 majority on the state supreme court. (Technically, supreme court races in Wisconsin are nonpartisan, but every recent race has pitted a liberal supported by Democrats against a conservative supported by Republicans.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Litigants challenging the gerrymandered state legislature filed a lawsuit, known as Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> the very next day.A quirk in the state constitution, however, may allow Wisconsin\u2019s gerrymandered legislature to strip Protasiewicz of her ability to decide cases<\/a>, and to do so indefinitely. That would leave the state supreme court evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, and thus unable (or, at least, unwilling) to strike down the state\u2019s gerrymander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the New York Times, \u201cRepublicans in Wisconsin are coalescing around the prospect of impeaching\u201d Protasiewicz<\/a>. If the state assembly moved forward with impeachment, and then the gerrymandered state Senate convicted her, that wouldn\u2019t actually be that big of a deal. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers could immediately appoint a replacement justice, who would then provide the fourth vote to strike down the gerrymandered maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the state constitution also provides that \u201cno judicial officer shall exercise [her] office, after [s]he shall have been impeached, until [her] acquittal<\/a>.\u201d So the state assembly could conceivably impeach Protasiewicz, and then the state senate could delay her trial forever \u2014 effectively creating a vacancy on the court that could last for a very long time.There\u2019s a very strong argument that this impeachment plan violates the First Amendment<\/a>. So, if Republicans actually move forward with this plan, Protasiewicz or some other interested party would likely file a federal lawsuit seeking to restore her to office. But, even if that lawsuit succeeds, that could take years.
And there\u2019s no guarantee that the federal judiciary, and especially a US Supreme Court with six GOP-appointed justices<\/a>, would honor past precedents indicating that Protasiewicz cannot be suspended from her office. Indeed, one member of the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito, has already signaled that he will intervene to ensure that Republicans keep their stranglehold on the state legislature.”
…
“if Protasiewicz\u2019s court also is not allowed to strike down these gerrymanders, the people of Wisconsin will be left with no lawful recourse whatsoever against permanent Republican control of their state legislature.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/scotus\/23861973\/wisconsin-gerrymander-republican-impeachment-justice-protasiewicz-supreme-court<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The state\u2019s legislature is so aggressively gerrymandered that it is likely impossible for Republicans to lose control of it in an election. In 2018, for example, Democratic state assembly candidates received 54 percent of the popular vote in Wisconsin, but Republicans still won 63 of the assembly\u2019s 99 seats.<\/p>\n

There is, however, a light at the end of this tunnel both for small-d democrats and for large-D Democrats in the notoriously contentious swing state. Last April, Justice Janet Protasiewicz won a landslide election victory over a former, very conservative state justice. She took her seat at the beginning of August, giving Democrats a 4-3 majority on the state supreme court. (Technically, supreme court races in Wisconsin are nonpartisan, but every recent race has pitted a liberal supported by Democrats against a conservative supported by Republicans.)<\/p>\n

Litigants challenging the gerrymandered state legislature filed a lawsuit, known as Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, the very next day.<\/p>\n

A quirk in the state constitution, however, may allow Wisconsin\u2019s gerrymandered legislature to strip Protasiewicz of her ability to decide cases, and to do so indefinitely. That would leave the state supreme court evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, and thus unable (or, at least, unwilling) to strike down the state\u2019s gerrymander.
\nAccording to the New York Times, \u201cRepublicans in Wisconsin are coalescing around the prospect of impeaching\u201d Protasiewicz. If the state assembly moved forward with impeachment, and then the gerrymandered state Senate convicted her, that wouldn\u2019t actually be that big of a deal. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers could immediately appoint a replacement justice, who would then provide the fourth vote to strike down the gerrymandered maps.<\/p>\n

But the state constitution also provides that \u201cno judicial officer shall exercise [her] office, after [s]he shall have been impeached, until [her] acquittal.\u201d So the state assembly could conceivably impeach Protasiewicz, and then the state senate could delay her trial forever \u2014 effectively creating a vacancy on the court that could last for a very long time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a very strong argument that this impeachment plan violates the First Amendment. So, if Republicans actually move forward with this plan, Protasiewicz or some other interested party would likely file a federal lawsuit seeking to restore her to office. But, even if that lawsuit succeeds, that could take years.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no guarantee that the federal judiciary, and especially a US Supreme Court with six GOP-appointed justices, would honor past precedents indicating that Protasiewicz cannot be suspended from her office. Indeed, one member of the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito, has already signaled that he will intervene to ensure that Republicans keep their stranglehold on the state legislature.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“if Protasiewicz\u2019s court also is not allowed to strike down these gerrymanders, the people of Wisconsin will be left with no lawful recourse whatsoever against permanent Republican control of their state legislature.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/scotus\/23861973\/wisconsin-gerrymander-republican-impeachment-justice-protasiewicz-supreme-court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[431,129,968,291],"class_list":["post-11782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-democracy","tag-gop","tag-republican-party","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11783,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions\/11783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}