Watchdog wants answers after secret meeting between Wisconsin judges and GOP leaders

The watchdog group American Oversight filed an Open Meetings Act request in Wisconsin this week after the Associated Press revealed Republican leaders were coordinating with former Supreme Court justices, including an-ex chief justice.

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, a Republican, told GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos he shouldn't impeach liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz. Prosser, who previously served as a speaker in the Assembly, has been the only former justice willing to come forward and reveal that they were on a secret panel of judges asked to coordinate and advise Vos on Protasiewicz.

Protasiewicz was elected by Wisconsin voters earlier this year, but from the beginning conservatives have attempted to have her removed. The most recent accusations are that Protasiewicz refused to recuse herself on a case that conservatives believe was a conflict because she revealed publicly how she intended to vote during her election campaign.

Prosser turned over records showing that he was also coordinating with former conservative Chief Justice Patience Roggensack.

Prosser revealed a voicemail Roggensack left asking if they could chat about “a matter that I thought we were going to look at together."

The next step from Prosser was to email Vos on Friday to advise against going after Protasiewicz for political reasons.

“To sum up my views, there should be no effort to impeach Justice Protasiewicz on anything we know now,” Prosser wrote. “Impeachment is so serious, severe, and rare that it should not be considered unless the subject has committed a crime, or the subject has committed indisputable ‘corrupt conduct’ while ‘in office.’”

Since then, Prosser has turned over all of the information, emails, and details to the American Oversight team. It has since applied for further information that was not public, in compliance with the state's open meetings laws which mandate all meetings be conducted in the open unless it applies to specific exemptions.

“This includes meetings of an advisory body like this one, which has been tasked by Speaker Vos to ‘review and advise’ government action,” said the group's executive director Heather Sawyer.

“It’s bad enough to threaten to remove an elected justice for political gain, but it’s an additional violation of the public trust to be making plans in secret," Sawyer also said. "Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law exists for a reason: The people have a right to know what their government is doing in their name. The panel could conclude its work before Wisconsinites know what’s going on behind closed doors, so time is of the essence. We urge the court to take immediate action.”

Prosser isn't the first GOP judge to come out against the attempts to remove Protasiewicz.

In an editorial published by the Wisconsin State Journal, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, who was appointed by one-time Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, joined with fellow former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler to argue that the Wisconsin GOP has no basis for impeaching Protasiewicz.

In fact, the two jurists make clear that "impeaching a justice for following the rules that govern her conduct is an attack on the very independence of the court and violates the separation of powers."

Geske and Butler wrote that the only legitimate basis for impeaching a justice on the state Supreme Court is for "corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors," neither of which can credibly apply to anything that Protasiewicz has done.