Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s victory in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election gave the state’s highest court a liberal majority, and that will have major consequences for abortion rights and redistricting in the state. Politically, Protasiewicz’s win sends a signal from a key battleground state about voters’ priorities heading into the 2024 presidential race.
The race was one of the country’s most consequential this year and the most expensive judicial contest in US history. In the end, it wasn’t even close. Protasiewicz was ahead of her conservative opponent, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, by more than 10 percent of the vote as of Wednesday morning.
She will serve a 10-year term on the nonpartisan bench, meaning liberals will control the court with a 4-3 majority until at least 2025 — that is, if the GOP-controlled legislature doesn’t impeach her.
Republicans including Dan Knodl, who won a special election for state senate Tuesday, have indicated they’re open to the idea, and he delivered his party the two-thirds supermajority it needs to do so. They would need 50 votes in the state assembly to initiate impeachment and two-thirds of votes in the state senate to convict. However, while they might be able to impeach her in her current position as a Milwaukee county judge, it’s not clear whether they would be permitted under state law to impeach Protasiewicz once she’s sworn in as a justice.
Barring that possibility, the court will be able to ensure that abortion remains legal in Wisconsin following the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn the decades-long precedent established in Roe v. Wade as part of its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Justices will also have the opportunity to redraw the state’s gerrymandered electoral maps, which could make them more competitive for Democrats in both the state legislature and the US House of Representatives.
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