Wisconsin’s status as a healthy democracy is currently in question. In recent days, the Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly has considered impeaching the newly elected liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has stated his reasoning for impeaching Justice Protasiewicz would be for her accepting a $10 million donation from Wisconsin’s Democratic Party during her campaign for a Supreme Court seat. Speaker Vos may be trying to present himself as a crusader against corruption, but dig a little deeper, and the real reason reveals itself. The election of Justice Protasiewicz and the resulting liberal court majority threatens the heavily gerrymandered Republican Assembly, and her possible impeachment is a sinister attempt to preserve their power.
During the 2010 “Red Wave,” Republicans gained the Wisconsin governor’s office and both branches of the state legislature. The state’s electoral shift was well-timed for Republicans, since 2011 was a reapportionment year. Reapportionment is when state legislatures redraw electoral districts, which are used in elections for the next decade. They used the opportunity that the reapportionment process provided to design districts that maximized the odds of a Republican candidate winning. This process is known as gerrymandering. Wisconsin’s political geography made it easy for Republicans to gerrymander since Democrats are packed into urban areas, and Republicans are spread out in rural parts throughout the state. As a result, the maps Republicans passed in 2011 were absurdly gerrymandered. Wisconsin’s state and federal level elections were close throughout the 2010s.
Nonetheless, Republicans held a comfortable majority in the state legislature for the whole decade and would do anything to maintain it. The most jaw-dropping example of this was during the 2018 elections. Democratic candidates running for the state assembly won 54% of the popular vote. Republicans won 63 of 99 assembly seats. The Democratic governor candidate, Tony Evers, managed to get elected. Since his win threatened the Republicans’ power, they took action. Republicans passed laws that severely weakened the governor’s power to do many things without the state legislature’s permission. In 2021, the Republican Assembly redrew the electoral maps to be almost identical to previous decades’ gerrymandered maps. Governor Evers challenged the maps, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority allowed the gerrymandered maps to stay in place. However, circumstances have recently changed in a way that radically challenges Republicans’ control.
The election of Justice Protasiewicz in April was an earth-shattering disruption to the status quo of Wisconsin politics. In a state where elections are decided on razor-thin margins, she won an 11-point victory. Her win flipped the Supreme Court into a liberal majority, and ramifications were instantaneous. The day after Justice Protasiewicz was sworn in, organizations sued to challenge Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps. This lawsuit is the most severe threat to the Republicans’ power since the creation of the maps. As a result, they immediately went into self-preservation mode. As mentioned earlier, Republicans have stated that they will have to impeach her if she does not recuse herself from the gerrymandering case due to accepting a political donation. When the conservatives controlled the Supreme Court, retired judges asked the court to ban rulings on cases where they received donations from the individuals or organizations in the lawsuit. Instead of being concerned about judicial integrity, the court ruled that there was no need for judges to recuse themselves. Although conservatives had no issue with campaign donations in the past, they are suddenly gravely concerned about the integrity of the court. When reading Speaker Vos’s comments in this context, his argument for impeachment becomes so stupid that it is frankly insulting. In spite of that, the reasoning behind impeaching her does not matter because they have the power to do it and do not need a good reason to justify it.
The most disturbing part of the plan would be that after her impeachment in the Assembly, Republicans may be in no rush to start a trial in the Senate. Justice Protasiewicz could become stuck in a limbo land where she won’t be allowed to rule on any cases, and Governor Evers couldn’t appoint a replacement. If this were to happen, the liberal court’s majority would cease to be. I want to emphasize to readers who may not follow politics that this is not normal, and its implications would be terrible for Wisconsin and its people.
In a healthy democracy, when a person casts their vote, they should be confident that their vote will count and have a consequence. Sadly, for Wisconsin voters, the gerrymandered districts have caused every election to be a premeditated Republican victory.
In the eyes of numerous Republican lawmakers, it seems the only election result that counted was 2010, and every other election result since then is irrelevant. Every time this decade, when Republicans have taken action to cement their power, they have been laughing at the idea that elections should have consequences. They have achieved what they wanted, which is power for the sake of power, and they will fight tooth and nail to preserve it to the detriment of Wisconsin.
But it would be wrong to leave this story thinking that democracy is doomed in Wisconsin. Despite Democrats being dealt a terrible hand in 2011, they decided to play the long game. Their inspiring persistence over the decade allowed for the wins of Gov. Evers and Justice Protasiewicz.
The constant challenges have molded the Wisconsin Democratic Party into one of the most competent state parties in the country. If the Republicans’ gerrymander was an attempt to silence Democrats, it backfired.
That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised if their attempt at impeaching the fairly elected Justice Protasiewicz will end in failure.
Evan McManus, FCRH ’25, is a political science major from Dover, Mass.
