#wisconsin supreme court
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Thank you, Wisconsin!!
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Wisconsin is ditching the GOP hyper-gerrymandered maps for its state legislature. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed a new set of maps into law which are vastly fairer.
Late last year the newly liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out the gerrymandered maps. The court flipped after Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated a MAGA opponent last April.
Under the previous maps, Republicans held about two-thirds of both the state Assembly and Senate. Under the new boundaries, the state Assembly and state Senate will likely see more balance between the two parties.
Republicans currently hold 64 out of 99 state Assembly seats under the Republican-drawn maps.
Under the new state Assembly map, the districts are more evenly split. The new map has 46 districts that lean Republican and 45 districts that lean Democratic.
The eight districts left are likely to be a toss-up between Democratic and Republican candidates.
Under the previous maps, Republicans hold 22 out of 33 state Senate seats.
Under the new state Senate map, 14 out of 33 districts are Democratic-leaning, while 15 are Republican-leaning.
Four districts are competitive, where either party has a fair chance of winning them.
You can't take back America without taking back the states. And you can't govern the states if you neglect elections for state legislature and state supreme court (in states where the court is elected).
Celebrate this victory for democracy by looking up who represents you in your own legislature. If you are represented by MAGA Republicans, contact your county or state Democratic Party and ask what you can do to help flip your district.
Find Your Legislators
Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.
#wisconsin#wisconsin legislature#tony evers#gerrymandering#wisconsin supreme court#janet protasiewicz#state government#maga republicans#vote blue no matter who#election 2024
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Congratulations, Wisconsin!
#wisconsin supreme court#wisconsin#us politics#united states politics#congratulations#go wisconsin#janet protasiewicz#iowa please follow suit#asap if you don't mind
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Save democracy: Free Wisconsin
Politics Girl with Ben Wikler
February 14, 2023
The Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 4th is THE most important election of 2023. This election will decide everything from if abortion is outlawed in the state, to if the gerrymander that has turned Wisconsin into a one party state is allowed to stand, to whether this ultimate swing state is allowed to send electors to Washington who didn’t win the popular vote, potentially swinging the 2024 Presidential Election to Republicans even if the Democrats win. Democracy itself is literally on the line with this election, not just in Wisconsin but for the entire nation. To get you fired up and passionate about this game changing moment in time, I’m talking to Ben Wikler, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin who not only knows everything about Wisconsin politics, but he knows how to win even when it seems the game is rigged against him. If you want to live in a country with a functioning democracy, there is nothing more important for you to be paying attention to right now than this one special election.
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Looks like WI dodged a poison bullet
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Motherfucking thank you to (55.7% of) Wisconsin for protecting my rights today
#actually crying#I didn't know how deep this would hit#janet protasiewicz#Wisconsin Supreme Court#dan kelly is a pos
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Wisconsin voters on Tuesday chose to upend the political direction of their state by electing a liberal candidate to the State Supreme Court, flipping majority control from conservatives, according to The Associated Press. The result means that in the next year, the court is likely to reverse the state’s abortion ban and end the use of gerrymandered legislative maps drawn by Republicans.
Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee County judge, defeated Daniel Kelly, a conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who sought a return to the bench. With more than 80% of votes counted, Judge Protasiewicz led by more than 10 percentage points, though the margin was expected to narrow as rural counties tallied ballots.
“Our state is taking a step forward to a better and brighter future where our rights and freedoms will be protected,” Judge Protasiewicz told jubilant supporters at her victory party in Milwaukee.
The contest, which featured over $40 million in spending, was the most expensive judicial election in American history. Early on, Democrats recognized the importance of the race for a swing seat on the top court in one of the country’s perennial political battlegrounds. Millions of dollars from out of state poured into Wisconsin to back Judge Protasiewicz, and a host of national Democratic groups rallied behind her campaign.
Judge Protasiewicz, 60, shattered long-held notions of how judicial candidates should conduct themselves by making her political priorities central to her campaign. She made explicit her support for abortion rights and called the maps, which gave Republicans near-supermajority control of the Legislature, “rigged” and “unfair.”
Her election to a 10-year term for an officially nonpartisan seat gives Wisconsin’s liberals a 4-to-3 majority on the court, which has been controlled by conservatives since 2008. Liberals will hold a court majority until at least 2025, when a liberal justice’s term expires. A conservative justice’s term ends in 2026.
As the race was called Tuesday night, the court’s three sitting liberal justices embraced at Judge Protasiewicz’s election night party in Milwaukee, as onlookers cried tears of joy. During her speech, the judge and the other three liberal justices clasped their hands together in the air in celebration.
“Today’s results mean two very important and special things,” Judge Protasiewicz said. “First, it means that Wisconsin voters have made their voices heard. They have chosen to reject partisan extremism in this state. And second, it means our democracy will always prevail.”
Justice Kelly, 59, evinced the bitterness of the campaign with a testy concession speech that acknowledged his defeat and portended doom for the state. He called his rival’s campaign “truly beneath contempt” and decried “the rancid slanders that were launched against me.”
“I wish that I’d be able to concede to a worthy opponent, but I do not have a worthy opponent,” Justice Kelly told supporters in Green Lake, Wis. He had not called Judge Protasiewicz by the time she delivered her victory remarks.
He concluded the final speech of his campaign by saying, “I wish Wisconsin the best of luck, because I think it’s going to need it.”
Judge Protasiewicz made a calculation from the start of the race that Wisconsin voters would reward her for making clear her positions on abortion rights and the state’s maps — issues most likely to animate and energize the base of the Democratic Party.
In an interview at her home on Tuesday before the results were known, Judge Protasiewicz (pronounced pro-tuh-SAY-witz) attributed her success on the campaign trail to the decision to inform voters of what she called “my values,” as opposed to Justice Kelly, who used fewer specifics about his positions.
“Rather than reading between the lines and having to do your sleuthing around like I think people have to do with him, I think I would rather just let people know what my values are,” she said. “We’ll see tonight if the electorate appreciates that candor or not.”
Over the last dozen years, the court has served as an important backstop for Wisconsin Republicans. It certified as constitutional Gov. Scott Walker’s early overhauls to state government, including the Act 10 law that gutted public employee unions, as well as voting restrictions like a requirement for a state-issued identification and a ban on ballot drop boxes.
In 2020, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was the only one in the country to agree to hear former President Donald J. Trump’s challenge to the presidential election. Mr. Trump sought to invalidate 200,000 ballots from the state’s two largest Democratic counties. The Wisconsin court rejected his claim on a 4-to-3 vote, with one of the conservative justices siding with the court’s three liberals on procedural grounds.
That key vote gave this year’s court race extra importance, because the justices will weigh in on voting and election issues surrounding the 2024 election. Wisconsin, where Mr. Trump’s triumph in 2016 interrupted a string of Democratic presidential victories going back to 1988, is set to again be ferociously contested.
The court has acted in Republicans’ interest on issues that have received little attention outside the state.
In 2020, a year after Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, succeeded Mr. Walker, conservative justices agreed to limit his line-item veto authority, which generations of Wisconsin governors from both parties had used. Last year, the court’s conservatives allowed a Walker appointee whose term had expired to remain in office over Mr. Evers’s objection.
Once Judge Protasiewicz assumes her place on the court on Aug. 1, the first priority for Wisconsin Democrats will be to bring a case to challenge the current legislative maps, which have given Republicans all but unbreakable control of the state government in Madison.
Jeffrey A. Mandell, the president of Law Forward, a progressive law firm that has represented Mr. Evers, said he would file a legal request for the Supreme Court to hear a redistricting case the day after Judge Protasiewicz is seated.
“Pretty much everything problematic in Wisconsin flows from the gerrymandering,” Mr. Mandell said in an interview on Tuesday. “Trying to address the gerrymander and reverse the extreme partisan gerrymandering we have is the highest priority.”
The state’s abortion ban, which was enacted in 1849, seven decades before women could vote, is already being challenged by Josh Kaul, Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general. This week, a circuit court in Dane County scheduled the first oral arguments on Mr. Kaul’s case for May 4, but whichever way a county judge rules, the case is all but certain to advance on appeal to the State Supreme Court later this year.
#us politics#news#Wisconsin#Democrats#liberals#wisconsin supreme court#the new york times#2023#elections#2023 elections#justice Daniel Kelly#Justice Janet Protasiewicz#Janet Protasiewicz#Daniel Kelly#abortion rights#abortions#gerrymandering#Scott Walker#Gov. Tony Evers#Jeffrey A. Mandell#Josh Kaul
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Thank You Wisconsin! Huge Win for Liberals, Women and Democracy! Congratulations Justice Janet Protasiewicz! 🥳🎊🎈🎉🥂👩🏼⚖️⚖️
#janet protasiewicz#abortion rights#womens rights#democracy#wisconsin#wisconsin supreme court#abortion ban#gerrymandering#vote#vote democratic#vote blue#bluewave#scotus#supreme court
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Rittenhouse got away with murder because one guy had a skateboard and the other had a plastic bag within a year.
It took four years to grant Kizer the okay to use self defense against her pedophile kidnapper and sex trafficker as her, well, defense.
I’m not saying that it’s because she’s black. I’m just saying that she probably only got the “okay” to use self-defense because people would riot if a murderer who crossed state lines and walked around with an AR-15 during a BLM protest got away with murder because it’s “self-defense” but a sex trafficking victim did not because she’s black.
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The Supreme Court election in Wisconsin is not the only important electoral contest in that state on Tuesday.
There’s a special election to fill a vacancy in State Senate District 8 which will decide whether or not the GOP keeps its two-thirds majority in the Wisconsin Senate. Without that two-thirds majority, Republicans cannot override vetos by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
WI-SD-08 had been very Republican but it has been trending blue in recent years.
GOP support has waned in recent years as Democrats made inroads in the suburbs.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson won about 63 percent of the district vote in 2016, but that dropped to 54 percent in 2022, according to a Marquette Law School analysis provided to Wisconsin Public Radio.
In 2012 and 2014, former Republican Gov. Scott Walker won about 67 percent of the vote in the current boundaries of the 8th Senate District. In 2018, that fell to 60 percent as he lost to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers statewide.
In the November election, Donald Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels received about 52 percent of the vote in the district. But he lost to Evers, who secured a second term.
Democrat Habush Sinykin is running for this seat on a pro-choice, pro-democracy platform. If she wins, this district can be considered purple.
Her opponent is Dan Knodl who is a far right extremist who after the 2020 election signed a letter attempting to decertify President Biden’s victory. Knodl is a certified election denier.
So if Wisconsin just re-elected a Dem governor and was won by Joe Biden in 2020, how did Republicans get a two-thirds majority in the State Senate? In one word: gerrymandering.
That’s why the election for Wisconsin Supreme Court and WI-SD-08 are key. With Wisconsin Republicans totally in control of the redistricting process, they can map themselves into perpetual control of the state.
Here is Wisconsin Senate District 8 – north and northwest of Milwaukee – in all its lime green glory.
If you know somebody who lives there, remind them to vote on Tuesday. If you currently live there, help get out the vote.
To find out which legislative districts you live in, anywhere in the US, use this handy tool.
Find Your Legislators
Look your legislators up by address or use your current location
And anywhere in Wisconsin, vote for Janet Protasiewicz for State Supreme Court. Her election will shift the court’s ideological orientation from hard right to center-left.
Janet Protasiewicz
Wisconsin Supreme Court
Vote in every election. There is no such thing as an unimportant election.
#wisconsin#state legislature#special election#wisconsin state senate#senate district 8#habush sinykin#dan knodl#knodl is an election denier#extremist republican#wisconsin supreme court#vote for judge janet#janet protasiewicz#janet protasiewicz is pro-choice#a woman's right to choose#wisconsin election april 4th
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#Wisconsin Supreme Court election#us politics#politics#elections#Wisconsin Supreme Court#state supreme courts#Barbie movie#Barbie movie memes#abortion rights#hell yeah#the Midwest did good today#reproductive rights#reproductive justice
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By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
Aug. 3, 2023
"In the past 12 years, one political party captured the Legislature and has insulated itself from being answerable to the voters."
Voting rights organizations and law firms joined forces Wednesday to file a legal challenge against Wisconsin's aggressively gerrymandered state legislative maps, which have allowed Republicans to cling to power in the Assembly and Senate for more than a decade.
Filed by Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Law Forward, the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, and Arnold & Porter, the petition argues that "Wisconsin's current legislative districts are unconstitutional in multiple ways," intentionally fragmenting Democratic voters in mid-sized cities and towns and giving Republicans an unlawful advantage.
The state's maps haven't changed much since 2011, when Republican lawmakers crafted GOP-friendly districts under then-Gov. Scott Walker.
"They are extreme partisan gerrymanders that violate multiple provisions of the Wisconsin Constitution," reads the new lawsuit, which was filed directly with the state Supreme Court. "The maps violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection because the Legislature, through these maps, has created superior and inferior classes of voters based on viewpoint, subordinating one class to the abusive fiat of the other. The maps also violate the constitutional guarantee of free speech because they retaliate against voters who express a political view by stripping them of political power."
The groups filed the challenge on behalf of 19 Wisconsin voters a day after liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn in to the state Supreme Court, ending 15 years of conservative dominance. Protasiewicz criticized Wisconsin's maps as "unfair" during her campaign for the seat—the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.
Jeff Mandell, a partner at Stafford Rosenbaum and board president of Law Forward, said Wednesday that "in the past 12 years, one political party captured the Legislature and has insulated itself from being answerable to the voters."
"Despite the fact that our legislative branch is meant to be the most directly representative of the people, the gerrymandered maps have divided our communities, preventing fair representation," said Mandell. "This has eroded confidence in our political system, suppressed competitive elections, skewed policy outcomes, and undermined democratic representation."
"We have endured 12 years of rule by right-wing interests," Mandell added, "and the voters of Wisconsin deserve fair representation."
"Legislators have no right to complete a term of office that was unconstitutionally obtained."
After a legal battle last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court implemented Republican-drawn voting maps that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed in late 2021. Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Legislature tried and failed to override the governor's veto.
The new lawsuit argues that by imposing on the state the exact maps Evers vetoed, the Wisconsin Supreme Court violated the separation-of-powers principle.
The petition notes that the maps "did precisely what Republicans hoped" in 2022, "increasing their majority to 64 assembly seats (two shy of a veto-proof two-thirds majority) and 22 senate seats (a veto-proof majority)."
"An equally divided electorate yielded near two-third majorities for Republicans in both chambers," the petition adds.
The plaintiffs ask that the state's current legislative maps be redrawn and call for special elections for state Senate seats that would otherwise not be up for reelection until 2026. If the lawsuit succeeds, state Assembly races would also be held under newly drawn maps.
"The legislators elected in November 2022 took office in unconstitutionally configured districts," the lawsuit states. "That constitutional infirmity has persisted for over a decade now, and Wisconsinites have suffered under this unconstitutional system for long enough. Legislators have no right to complete a term of office that was unconstitutionally obtained."
Mark Gaber, senior director of redistricting at Campaign Legal Center, said Wednesday that "for far too long, Wisconsinites have had their voices illegally silenced by extreme gerrymandering."
"Gerrymandering is a stain on our democracy no matter which party does it," said Gaber. "It's common sense: Voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around."
#gerrymandering#wisconsin#janet protasiewicz#wisconsin supreme court#voting rights#campaign legal center
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Janet Protasiewicz, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, giving liberals their first majority on the state’s highest court in 15 years.
Protasiewicz defeated conservative Dan Kelly, a former state Supreme Court justice, on Tuesday in what became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history and one of the most closely watched elections of 2023.
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Big progressive wins in Wisconsin and Chicago elections this week show the staying power of left-wing positions on abortion and crime as issues heading into 2024.
Why It Matters: After Democrats became the surprise winners of the 2022 midterms, the twin Midwest results Tuesday in widely watched mayoral and state Supreme Court races showed how the party could energize its base.
• "Everybody needs to understand this, everybody advising candidates, everybody running, everybody looking at putting ballot initiatives forward: Abortion rights are a winning issue," Democratic strategist Jess McIntosh told Axios.
Driving The News: In Wisconsin, Janet Protasiewicz won in the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history, giving liberals the state Supreme Court majority for the first time in more than a decade. The crucial election carried implications for abortion rights and redistricting in the perennial swing state.
• With Protasiewicz's win, the court could overturn Wisconsin's pre-Civil War abortion ban and revisit the 2022 congressional maps that favored Republicans.
• McIntosh said that she was surprised by the level of engagement with the down-ballot election.
Protasiewicz won by roughly 11 points, and turnout broke the previous record for a spring election not coinciding with a presidential primary, AP notes.
• Voters "went to the ballot because they understood that the right to abortion depended on this seat," she said.
• Though the election was technically nonpartisan, Protasiewicz was backed by Democrats and abortion rights groups including Emily's List.
In Chicago, progressive Democrat Brandon Johnson beat the more moderate Paul Vallas, who campaigned on a platform focused on public safety as the city grapples with high violent crime.
• Johnson's victory handed progressives control over two of America's largest three cities, following L.A. Mayor Karen Bass' win last year.
State Of Play: Tuesday's results — paired with strong Democratic performance in the midterms — underscore that voters "turn out and are responsive to" the party's messaging on key issues including abortion, the integrity of U.S. democracy and addressing crime, Colin Seeberger, a senior advisor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, told Axios.
• Protasiewicz's victory in Wisconsin shows that "when the American people's fundamental rights are at stake, they really show up resoundingly," Seeberger said.
• Seeberger added that he was "really heartened by just the breadth of the victory."
Abortion proved to be a salient issue in other races last year.
• In August 2022, Kansas voters rejected an anti-abortion constitutional amendment, the first time voters in the U.S. casted ballots on the issue following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Meanwhile, the results in Chicago were an "affirmation of how Democrats are approaching the issue of crime, which is that they are standing resolutely in support of both accountability and prevention," he added.
Zoom Out: The Midwest victories come after other local elections and legislation have highlighted fissions in the Democratic Party over issues including crime. Republicans have also looked to capitalize on what's been cast as a major wedge issue for Dems.
• A D.C. crime law that would've reduced maximum penalties for some violent crimes entered the national spotlight when it was overturned by Congress and President Biden.
• Last year, San Francisco residents voted to recall progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a divisive election that motivated further party discussion on criminal justice reform.
• New York City's 2021 mayoral election dealt a major blow to progressives with the Democratic primary win of now-Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate who promised to be tough on crime.
The Backdrop: The elections came the same day former President Trump turned himself in and was arraigned following a historic indictment in a hush-money case. He pled not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
• The sharp contrast between the public spectacle of Trump's arrest and Biden's relatively calm day evoked the split-screen of the 2020 election.
• Voters ultimately backed Biden's return-to-normalcy campaign — and the White House hopes they will again in 2024, should he face Trump in a historic rematch.
Go Deeper:
• House Dems curb their enthusiasm on Trump arrest
• House Dems target Trump districts for ambitious 2024 push
#us politics#news#2023 elections#Wisconsin#Illinois#chicago#Democrats#progressives#Axios#wisconsin supreme court#chicago mayoral election#janet protasiewicz#justice Janet Protasiewicz#Brandon Johnson#the associated press#law and crime#abortion bans#gerrymandering#Colin Seeberger#Center for American Progress Action Fund#Jess McIntosh#2023
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