American Oversight Seeks Records Related to Potential Impeachment of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice
American Oversight filed a public records request for Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ communications related to threats to remove state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, including his reported consultation with former justices.
On Thursday, nonprofit watchdog American Oversight filed a request for Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ communications related to his partisan efforts to remove state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz — including his reported creation of a panel of former justices to advise on those efforts.
American Oversight’s request seeks correspondence of Vos or members of his office about the potential impeachment of Protasiewicz if she does not recuse herself from Supreme Court cases about Republican-drawn redistricting maps, as well as communications exchanged between Vos’ office and a number of former justices.
On Wednesday, Vos said that he had formed a panel of former justices to “review and advise what the criteria are for impeachment” of Protasiewicz, who was elected in April. The effort comes as conservatives in the state legislature continue their partisan attack on Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission who has been the target of election-related conspiracy theories.
Statement from Heather Sawyer, Executive Director of American Oversight:
“Speaker Vos’ threats to remove Justice Protasiewicz if she does not recuse from redistricting cases are an appalling attack on judicial independence and democracy itself. It’s bad enough that he’s threatening impeachment for partisan political gain; creating a secret panel to shield these efforts from public view is an additional violation of the public trust. The people of Wisconsin have a right to know who is involved and how they’re working to remove a duly elected supreme court justice.”
American Oversight’s request to the Wisconsin Assembly is available here.