A Dane County judge has dismissed claims that former justices advising Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on the possibility of impeaching liberal Janet Protasiewicz violated the open meetings law.
Judge Frank Remington wrote in his ruling yesterday that when the panel convened to allegedly advise the Rochester Republican at his request, “it plainly violated the open meetings law.”
Still, Remington wrote he was compelled to dismiss the open meetings violation component of American Oversight’s suit because the Washington, D.C.-based group failed to follow state statute in seeking private enforcement of the open meetings law.
Remington wrote once American Oversight filed a complaint with the Dane County DA over the panel, it had to either wait for Ismael Ozanne to refuse to prosecute or for 20 days before filing the suit.
Because it did neither, Remington ruled he had to dismiss the open meetings complaint.
An open records component of the suit will continue.
American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer said the group will consider its options in light of Remington’s ruling. But she touted the result of the suit. That includes the release of documents showing former conservative Justices David Prosser and Jon Wilcox had advised Vos against impeaching Protasiewicz for hearing a redistricting lawsuit after calling the current GOP-drawn maps “rigged” during the spring campaign.
“American Oversight’s lawsuit was about getting the people of Wisconsin the facts and documents in real time — as Speaker Vos’ secret panel was meeting and advising him, not months or years later,” Sawyer said.
Vos hailed the ruling.
“The dismissal of the case reaffirms our position, that this lawsuit lacked any merit and was an attempt to deviate from the real issue of the recusal of Justice Protasiewicz,” he said.
Vos this summer raised the prospect of impeaching Protasiewicz if the new liberal justice heard a redistricting lawsuit. In August and September media interviews, the speaker said he was seeking advice from former justices on the prospect of impeaching Protasiewicz, but didn’t disclose from whom or other details.
American Oversight filed the complaint with Ozanne Sept. 20, and the DA reached out to Vos and Prosser. Five days later, the group filed the lawsuit seeking to compel what it dubbed the “secret panel” to follow the open meetings law. The ensuing proceedings revealed that former conservative Justice Pat Roggensack was also advising Vos.
The speaker and Prosser then filed a motion to dismiss the open meetings portions of the action, arguing that asking the former justices to advise him didn’t constitute a governmental body and therefore there was no violation of the open meetings law. He also raised the timing issue, arguing the court couldn’t hear the open meetings allegations because American Oversight failed to follow the required waiting period.
Remington found the complaint plausibly suggests the panel was a government body and that its members met to discuss Vos’ request. But the group’s failure to follow the waiting period, which he called “central” to the open meetings law, undermined its case.
Read the ruling here.
