Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Files Lawsuit Against State Assembly Speaker Regarding Possible Impeachment of Justice

Tuesday, September 12th, 2023 -- 9:00 AM

(Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) A former Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate is asking the state's highest court to block Republican lawmakers from launching impeachment proceedings against a justice whose election in April flipped the court to liberal control, setting the stage for new electoral maps that could boost the number of legislative seats held by Democrats.

According to Molly Beck with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Madison attorney Tim Burns, who ran for a seat on the court in 2018, filed a lawsuit Monday against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos arguing an impeachment of newly seated Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz would violate the constitutional rights of voters who supported her during the spring election.

Vos first floated the idea of impeaching Protasiewicz last month. He said Protasiewicz's comments during her campaign about the state's electoral maps being "rigged" require her to recuse herself from lawsuits filed by Democrats seeking to rewrite the maps to be less favorable to Republicans.

The Wisconsin Constitution does not outline avenues to impeach such officials over recusal issues. Even so, Vos and other Republican lawmakers have signaled the move could happen this year.

"The votes of over one million Wisconsinites are about to be assigned to the dustbin of history by an Un-American, anti-democratic powerplay by the Wisconsin state legislature that is designed to and will simultaneously destroy judicial independence and the right of voters to effectuate political change in Wisconsin," Burns wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed directly with the Supreme Court.

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