The new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is off to a tense start [View all]

[Fla Dem]

The new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is off to a tense start

With several imminent cases about hot-button issues like abortion, growing tensions and accusations of partisanship won't end any time soon.

Aug. 7, 2023, 7:00 AM EDT
By Adam Edelman and Shaquille Brewster

When liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court this year, giving liberals their first majority in 15 years, it put an end to the bitterest and most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history.

But when Protasiewicz was sworn in last week, formally tipping the ideological balance of the court to the left, tensions on the bench erupted anew into public view.

First, the court’s nascent liberal majority fired a longtime court officer. The controversial move triggered blistering blowback from the new conservative minority — and quickly led to days of rancorous news releases and tweets from the justices, trading insults and accusations of partisanship.

A day later, a suit challenging the state’s heavily gerrymandered legislative maps, which disproportionately favor Republicans, was filed directly to the high court. The existing maps were enacted last year by the court’s previous conservative majority, putting a highly partisan issue before the new majority almost immediately.

Much More.....https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/new-liberal-majority-wisconsin-supreme-court-tense-start-rcna98052