Senate Republicans grilled three nominees to the Wisconsin Judicial Commission on when Supreme Court justices should recuse themselves amid GOP complaints about liberal Janet Protasiewicz past statements on redistricting.
GOP members of the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Tuesday didn’t mention Protasiewicz by name as they pressed the nominees. All three refused to answer most of the committee members’ hypotheticals.
The three argued it’s hard to say how they would vote without knowing all of the circumstances — something a hypothetical cannot provide.
Attorney Janet Jenkins, retained by the Judicial Commission for investigative purposes in the past, argued much of what judicial candidates say on the campaign trail is constitutionally protected.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, questioned where commissioners would draw the line between when judges and justices are stating their opinions and when they are saying how they would decide cases.
“If a judge were to say to an audience ‘that decision was wrong, or that outcome was wrong, but I promise to do right,'” the former Marine judge advocate general attorney said. “What’s the distinction with that and the statement of ‘I will hope to make it right.’?”
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Board of Directors member Mary Beth Keppel and Judy Ziewacz, who served as chief of staff to former Dem U.S. Rep. Alvin Baldus, were originally appointed to the commission in early 2022 for terms that expired Aug. 1, 2023. The two and Jenkins, who was nominated in January for a term that expired Aug. 1, have all been renominated for new terms that run through 2026.
Protasiewicz at a WisPolitics Supreme Court candidate debate in January, the only debate of the election, called Wisconsin’s legislative maps “rigged.”
“I can’t tell you what I would do on a particular case, but I can tell you my values, and the maps are wrong,” she said.
Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, after Jenkins answered questions noted a change in interest among her colleagues.
“It’s great to know we’ve got new fans of judicial ethics here in the Senate,” she said.
Keppel told Wimberger she can’t answer his question without knowing the specific facts involved.
“But I do know that there’s a very clear law and it’s by the U.S. Supreme Court that says that someone that’s seeking elective office has the First Amendment right to express their opinion, as long as they don’t indicate that they’re going to decide a case in a certain manner,” she said.
Senators also questioned if commissioners would recuse themselves from looking into complaints against justices or judges if they’ve donated to those judicial candidates’ campaigns.
Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, and others pressed each of the nominees on if they would recuse themselves from issues relating to candidates to whom they’ve donated.
“And it all goes to bias, you’re to be in an unbiased position as a commissioner, but obviously a contribution shows a very particular bias to the individual candidate,” he said. “So would that bias not carry over to an individual that was party to a lawsuit?”
He pointed out Keppel donated $150 to Dem AG Josh Kaul and $300 to Gov. Tony Evers last fall.
Keppel said she previously recused herself from an issue involving liberal Justice Jill Karofsky after donating to her campaign, but she added she only recused because the two had professionally interacted and socialized in the past.
Roys noted commissioners don’t vote on issues involving the parties in lawsuits, they just focus on judges and justices, which Evers and Kaul are not.
“You are looking at judicial conduct,” she said. “You are looking at the judges. So it doesn’t really matter if any litigation is before any particular court when that has no bearing on your decision as to a judge’s conduct.”
Watch the hearing:
https://wiseye.org/2023/08/22/senate-committee-on-judiciary-and-public-safety-45/
