Major Cases Expected to Come Before the Wisconsin Supreme Court

Monday, August 7th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

(AP) Conflicts on Wisconsin’s newly liberal controlled state Supreme Court spilled out publicly as the court majority flipped this week, setting the stage for deep divisions in the battleground state on major cases that could determine the legality of abortions and voting rules, as well as legislative boundary lines.

Conservatives controlled the court for 15 years until Tuesday. Liberals will have the majority for at least the next two years. Under conservative control, the court upheld Republican-drawn maps in 2011 that helped the GOP increase its majorities, affirmed a state law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, and declared absentee ballot drop boxes illegal.

Deep partisan divisions on the court aren’t new. Tensions were so high in 2011 as the court considered a case about collective bargaining rights that a liberal justice accused one of her conservative colleagues of trying to choke her.

On Wednesday, conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler accused liberal justices of a “raw exercise of overreaching power” when they fired the state court director Randy Koschnick. He was a judge for 18 years before he served six years overseeing Wisconsin’s court system.

Koschnick ran for the state Supreme Court as a conservative in 2009 and lost. Republican legislative leaders sent the court a letter Friday saying the appointment of a Milwaukee County judge to serve as interim court director was unconstitutional.

They argue that the Wisconsin Constitution prohibits Judge Audrey Skwierawski from holding any office besides judge during her term. The lawmakers demanded that her appointment be rescinded. But if a lawsuit is brought over that, its final stop would be the state Supreme Court controlled by the very justices who fired Koschnick.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.