The panel Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has tasked with looking into impeachment standards includes former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and former Justices Jon Wilcox and David Prosser, a new court filing shows.
Prosser in a court hearing last week acknowledged he was part of the panel Vos convened as some GOP lawmakers threatened to pursue impeachment of liberal Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz if she didn’t recuse herself from a pair of redistricting lawsuits. Protasiewicz on Friday refused GOP demands to recuse, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear two key issues in one of the cases.
Text messages in another filing earlier this week showed Roggensack was another likely participant.
Vos, who has previously declined to name who was providing him advice in the matter, included the names in a new filing in a case in which liberal group American Oversight is seeking to force the panel to hold its meetings in public.
And while the Rochester Republican acknowledges in the filing the panel exists, he argues its existence does not constitute a governmental body that would have to comply with Wisconsin’s open meetings law.
Vos in a declaration in support of a brief responding to American Oversight’s request for a temporary restraining order and injunction, notes lawmakers regularly consult and meet with lobbyists, journalists, attorneys and others.
“To my knowledge, no member of the Assembly has taken the position that every time he meets with or speaks with a human being to discuss a matter that may come before the Assembly, the meeting or discussion is governed by the Open Meetings Law,” Vos wrote. “Such a standard would be absurd, and is not required under the Open Meetings Law.”
Vos in the filing argued he has never asked them “to prepare a report, memorandum, or any other written work product.”
Vos last month in a WisPolitics Capitol Chats podcast said he was hesitant to release whatever opinion the panel comes up with to the public, arguing he doesn’t want it to become a “public spectacle.”
See the brief here.
See Vos’ declaration in support of the brief here.
