February 22, 2023

"The general election for the swing seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, a momentous contest that will determine whether Republicans maintain or lose their iron grip on the state’s politics..."

"... will feature a liberal Milwaukee County judge against a conservative former justice of the state’s high court. Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal from the Milwaukee suburbs, and Daniel Kelly, a former Supreme Court justice who lost his seat in a 2020 election, advanced in a Tuesday primary to the April 4 general election.... If Judge Protasiewicz prevails in six weeks, it would tip the balance of the state’s seven-member Supreme Court, which has been controlled by conservatives since 2008. The court would have a four-member liberal majority that would be likely to overturn the state’s 1849 law forbidding abortion in nearly all cases, redraw Wisconsin’s heavily gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps, and influence how the state’s 10 electoral votes are awarded after the 2024 presidential election."

The NYT reports.

79 comments:

Mark said...

Shocked the GOP ran Kelly, as he already has lost one of these and has nothing positive to add to his last losing effort.

rhhardin said...

The collapse of civilization waits on the women's vote.

Enigma said...

I for one can't wait for Wisconsin's gerrymandered districts to resemble those attempted in Maryland and New York. Democratic district lines are so twisty that one might trace the boundaries as a maze game.

Pot calls kettle black. NYT pretends otherwise. News at 11.

rehajm said...

Are we going to suffer another round of lawyer writing ‘judges act impartially’ posts or are we past that crap?

StoughtonSconnie said...

Perhaps someone can explain to me how courts, who have no role in drawing Wisconsin’s district boundaries (the State Constitution says a bill has to be passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor), can step in and say “no, use these maps we drew”. Shouldn’t it be more like “no, these maps are unconstitutional because of (fill in the blank), you need to try again” and the legislature then works again? I am not asking for the political reason for that, but what is the legal justification?

Political Junkie said...

The D will win. We all know it. Sucks...but oh well.

Mr Wibble said...

The liberal will win. It's Wisconsin, and the GOP is stupid.

Michael P said...

It became necessary to overrule the democracy in order to save it, to coin a phrase.

Iman said...

Oohhhhh… the Pounce of Stealth and that Grip of Iron!

The Full of Shit.

MadTownGuy said...

Mark said...

"Shocked the GOP ran Kelly, as he already has lost one of these and has nothing positive to add to his last losing effort."

I posted this before, but here it is again. At least the (un)Democratic Party was unsuccessful in promoting its straw candidate this time; I can only hope it was due to sensible people seeing through this attempt to subvert the electoral process, but sometimes I'm optimistic about such things.

Democrats Meddle Again in a G.O.P. Primary, This Time Down-Ballot

"Last year, Democrats spent millions of dollars elevating far-right candidates in Republican primary contests for governor and Congress — betting, it turned out correctly, that more extreme opponents would lose general elections.

Now Wisconsin Democrats are trying to do it again, this time with mail and TV ads before a Republican primary in a special election for a State Senate seat that carries ramifications far beyond the district in suburban Milwaukee.

The Democrats are helping a far-right election denier who has become a pariah within her party in her race against a less extreme, but still election-denying, conservative. They hope that with a more vulnerable opponent, Democrats can win a seat held for decades by Republicans and deny the G.O.P. a veto-proof majority in the gerrymandered chamber.

“Janel Brandtjen is as conservative as they come,” reads a postcard sent to Republican voters from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which calls her “a conservative pro-Trump Republican.”

The Feb. 21 primary, and the April 4 general election to follow, will serve as the latest test of how much appetite Republican voters have for the flavor of election denialism that fueled the party’s grass roots after former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election loss.

The twist in the Wisconsin race is that both leading Republican candidates took significant public steps to try to overturn Mr. Trump’s defeat. One of them, however, Ms. Brandtjen, a state representative from Menomonee Falls, has so alienated members of her own party that she was kicked out of the State Assembly’s Republican caucus, leaving Democrats giddy about the prospect of facing her in a special election for a battleground district.
"

Ann Althouse said...

"Shocked the GOP ran Kelly, as he already has lost one of these and has nothing positive to add to his last losing effort"

There was a primary yesterday and he won one of the slots. That's what this post is about.

Wisconsin Supreme Court races are not based on parties. The candidates are officially not identified by party. So the GOP didn't run him. He ran and he survived the primary.

Old and slow said...

So the goal here is explicitly to overturn the state's 1849 abortion law. I thought that overturning laws was traditionally the role of the legislature.

Ann Althouse said...

There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time.

Gospace said...

And to think- if they ruled on the actual words of constitutions, statutes, and laws, there'd be no difference. But that's the conservative defailt... Courts can't change the world if they rule following actual words and meanings. Gotta find those penubras and emanations, and invisible ink between the liones to "advance" scoiety and steer it in the right direction.

Biggest example being- we must discriminate in order to stop discrimination. I wonder if the Autralians had that over the gates to their covid concesntraion camps...

Dan from Madison said...

"...redraw Wisconsin’s heavily gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps" - now do Illinois

Rocco said...

Ann Althouse said...
There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time.

Mars in retrograde makes people angry, lethargic and tense. Apparently statutes in retrograde make people single issue voters.

Mark said...

"Wisconsin Supreme Court races are not based on parties. The candidates are officially not identified by party"

The texts I have been getting daily make it quite obvious the party backing each candidate. Except for Mitchell, I have been spammed by them all quite heavily.

Kelly being said to have supported looking overturning the 2020 election is not a subtle hint that he is a GOP Trump devotee, but feel free to mansplain that they are not 'officially' IDed by party.

Old and slow said...

The legislature must be very stupid if they refuse to correct the law. Republicans behaving stupidly, who could have seen that coming!

Rusty said...

Political Junkie said...
"The D will win. We all know it. Sucks...but oh well."
Of course. Why do you think the Democrats are running Kelly. Oh! I know what you're thinking. " Silly Rusty. The Republicans are running Kelly." Well, yes. The Republicans are running Kelly, but the Democrats chose him because he's sure to lose. "But how can the Democrats choose a Republican cadidate, Rusty?" How did we get Trump? Think about it.

Unknown said...

"IRON GRIP!"

Achilles said...

The 105% turnout from the nursing homes in Wisconsin will determine who wins.

Nursing home residents seem to vote 100% for democrats.

It is a total mystery what is going on.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

When Ds control - do they have an "iron grip"?

RMc said...

Wisconsin’s heavily gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps

Gerrymandering, like everything else, is OK when the Good People do it, and wrong when the Bad people do it.

gspencer said...

Today is real remembrance of Washington's Birthday (02/22/1732).

MadTownGuy said...

Ann Althouse said...

"There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time."

I agree that the Legislature should have corrected the old statute early on, though there would have been fights against any limitations on abortion and a few (R) candidates might have an uneasy time in the next election cycle for voting for such a law, with or without limitations.

That said, this really isn't a single issue campaign now. The voting environment has been irreparably changed since at least 2018 in Wisconsin and I don't expect it to be any different going forward. The (D) voters have desired to take back the Supreme Court in WI for a long time, 'non-partisan race' be damned, and want to do so by any means necessary.

MadisonMan said...

Democrats have held majorities (Legislature and Governor) several times since I moved to WI. Ample opportunity to repeal the retrograde law. And they never did because Abortion moves money into Democratic campaign coffers.
A sensible Republican party would move right now to have a Europe-like ban on abortion. But then Politicians are rarely sensible.
BTW, I'm surprised for some reason that the accent is on the third rather than second syllable of Protasiewicz. (I spelled that from memory, might be wrong)

MadisonMan said...

Also: Dear NYTime: How can Republicans have an Iron Grip on the politics of Wisconsin when the Governor is a Democrat?

Achilles said...

Mark said...
Shocked the GOP ran Kelly, as he already has lost one of these and has nothing positive to add to his last losing effort.

The GOP machine in Wisconsin is all about supporting the WEF agenda.

They are not about winning elections.

They are about subverting the will of US citizens.

rwnutjob said...

All politics is local
In order to kill babies, you turn your state into a leftist shithole. got it.

Achilles said...

Ann Althouse said...
There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time.

Something about squirrels finding acorns...

Gahrie said...

There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too e legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid,

It's also undemocratic. If there's a law you don't like, you're supposed to vote for representatives that will change the law, not vote for judges that will legislate from the bench. Your apparent support for such a tactic is disheartening.

Gusty Winds said...

Wisconsin is screwed. The four female libs on the next WI Supreme Court will rule Act 10 unconstitutional. Absentee votes will be fraudulently filled in and harvested everywhere. Maybe you'll even be able to get a 9th month abortion in Wausau and not have to travel to Milwaukee or Madison.

Where do they get the authority to draw the maps in a mostly rural state? More evidence of the totalitarian nature of women given a lot of power. Equality is real.

The WI GOP is too stupid to get ahead of the curve on abortion and set it at 15 weeks. Be done with this shit.

But WI liberals are as bad as Berkeley, CA. Our once great state will be ruled by four liberal women legislating from the Supreme Court bench. We are about to become Illinois and Minnesota.

My plan is to drink and smoke as much as possible and hold tight to those great Wisconsin traditions. FORWARD!!!! And GOD BLESS WAUKESHA COUNTY.

William50 said...

The number of votes received by the overall winner were greater the the combined votes of the two conservative candidates. The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be majority liberal after the general election.

Joe Smith said...

I hope you get out soon AA.

Because these days I wish only chaos and ruin on liberal enclaves.

It's the only way people will figure out the consequences of voting for these liberal idiots...

Gusty Winds said...

Althouse said...Wisconsin Supreme Court races are not based on parties.

"On paper" yes. Otherwise that is complete and utter make believe.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt is it?

How do we run a society when even the most educated among us are will to go along with the pretend?

Gusty Winds said...

Time to move to Merton!!!

DINKY DAU 45 said...

Cashed my 2nd wager of the year on the Liberal winning top spot in Wisconsin bid for supreme court in April. Its 2-2 so far for my ROI with handicapping the SUPERBOWL and Chiefs underdog win and the top spot for the court in Wisconsin. I most likely will wager liberal again in April for the court. The $$$ and event was record breaking as all politics is more and more based on BIG $$$.It will be 1st time in 15 years a liberal court has majority if(when) the liberal wins in Apil.Immediate changes will occur. Stay tuned

StoughtonSconnie said...

Ann, I agree that the 1849 statute is retrograde, and I say that as a pro-lifer. That said, the Assembly Speaker floated exceptions to the law, and Evers made it clear that he would veto that unless the law goes to the status quote ante. It’s not just one side playing politics on this.

Zavier Onasses said...

VOTER FRAUD LIKELY GAVE WISCONSIN'S 10 ELECTORAL VOTES TO BIDEN IN 2020 ELECTION.

That is the most probable cause, given the well known Replblican "iron grip on the state's politics."

Dude1394 said...

Sure am glad that Roberts was correct that there are not democrat and republican judges. What a load.

Levi Starks said...

Iron grip of the Republicans versus the velvet glove of Democrats.

Narayanan said...

iron will rust eventually if not painted perioically >> is there Tom Sawyer in WI school libraries?

D.D. Driver said...

The GOP machine in Wisconsin is all about supporting the WEF agenda.

They are not about winning elections.

They are about subverting the will of US citizens.


Oh bullshit! The GOP won tons of elections in Wisconsin before Trump turned the party into a clown car. How many millions and millions of dollars did the Dems pour into Wisconsin trying to defeat Scott Walker? The GOP had the governorship, both houses in the legislature, an overwhelmingly conversative Supreme Court. Everything. That was the whole reason Priebus became chair of the RNC. The Wisconsin GOP was kicking ass.

Those days are long gone post-Foxconn (aka the fraud Trumpies are too chickenshit to defend so they act like it didn't happen).

Narayanan said...

Gahrie said...
It's also undemocratic. If there's a law you don't like, you're supposed to vote for representatives that will change the law, not vote for judges that will legislate from the bench. Your apparent support for such a tactic is disheartening.
=========
is not entire industry of Constitutional Law based on John Marshall edicts?

I beseech request edumacation !

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger MadisonMan said...
Also: Dear NYTime: How can Republicans have an Iron Grip on the politics of Wisconsin when the Governor is a Democrat?

It's a combination of the demographics, the large amount of sparse rural areas, and relatively small concentrated population centers compared to other states. In order for a liberal WI Supreme court to draw Democrat gerrymandered maps, the map is going to have to look like a Salvador Dali painting.

They would have to take small portions of Milwaukee and Madison, and then extend district lines far out into the rural areas in order to split them and let the "tip" of the liberal population center dominate the districts. They would have to do the same with La Crosse, Green Bay etc...

US Supreme Court battles will ensue...

rehajm said...

DINKY DAU 45 said...
Cashed my 2nd wager of the year on the Liberal winning top spot in Wisconsin bid for supreme court in April. Its 2-2 so far for my ROI with handicapping the SUPERBOWL and Chiefs underdog win and the top spot for the court in Wisconsin. I most likely will wager liberal again in April for the court. The $$$ and event was record breaking as all politics is more and more based on BIG $$$.It will be 1st time in 15 years a liberal court has majority if(when) the liberal wins in Apil.Immediate changes will occur. Stay tuned


Is that a parlay?

Gusty Winds said...

Although Eastern Waukesha County, WI is densely populated, there is a lot of open land being developed in the Western part of the county in "Lake Country". Beautiful area. Very Red. TONS of new housing construction as grandchildren and great grandchildren sell off family farmland for new housing neighborhoods.

Once "podunk" small rural communities (like Merton) 30 miles west of Milwaukee, are now putting up $500K to $1M homes all over. Quiet. Peaceful. Safe. And out of reach of Milwaukee's bullshit. Just like Madison. Madison just pretends it's not happening because it doesn't affect them.

Much of it is flight from Milwaukee, Whitefish Bay, Glendale and other concentrated white liberal areas who already screwed up their own communities and schools, and see Milwaukee's car thefts and violence reaching their once safe suburbs.

Whether or not they bring the liberal politics with them that made them flee in the first place is still to be seen. My suspicion is they are bringing it, as Ozaukee County, once solidly red in the Walker years, is now light purple.

Stephen said...

This is not just about abortion. It's also a vote on a stacked and fundamentally undemocratic political structure. Wisconsin voters are turning to the courts to deal with Republican overreach--and the phenomenon predates the overruling of Roe.

Althouse writes that it's "too bad" the legislature can't repeal or amend a medieval abortion statue. But voters--and especially moderate voters who might favor such a solution--know that the reason it isn't happening isn't bad luck: it's because the legislature, by Republican design, is not remotely representative of their views.

In statewide elections, the state is divided about 50-50, but in the state legislature and congressional delegation are divided in favor of the Republicans: 60-39 (Assembly), 20-12 (Senate) and 6-2 (Congressional delegation). That's extreme gerrymandering, and it's obviously unfair and, if the courts won't act, likely to be self perpetuating.

Swing voters are noticing. The count in Wisconsin yesterday was quite striking. If you take the vote for the two liberal candidates together, they are at nearly 54% and the conservatives are at 46%. By the standards of recent state wide elections in Wisconsin, that 8 point margin is a shellacking. My guess is that the last statewide margin that big was (wait for it), the last State Supreme Court election, when abortion was not even on the ballot. The reason, I am betting, is the the conservatives lost virtually every swing voter--including Professor Althouse, if her New York travel didn't prevent her from voting.

There is going to be a ton of outside money in the April 4 election, from both sides of the political spectrum, largely because of the consequences for control of the House and the Presidency. My guess is that it won't move the needle that much, because both the conservatives and liberals will turn out "their" voters. If Protasciewicz holds on to this kind of margin in April, it will not be because Wisconsin is so liberal but because moderates in Wisconsin are tired of Republican overreach. This is getting to be a familiar pattern in purple states.

Rocco said...

Gusty Winds said...
How do we run a society when even the most educated among us are willing to go along with the pretend?

There's educated and then there's "Educated".


Chuck said...

Ann Althouse said...
There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time.


Three sentences.

I don't think it would be possible to better sum up the WI Supreme Court election, in any fewer words.

21st century pro-life absolutist Republicans are "the dog that caught the car."

Kirk Parker said...

StoughtonSconnie,

Legal justification???

Go ahead and pull the other one!

hombre said...

"It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time."

There is probably a more apt description for a society whose politics are determined by baby killers. Wow. Put the baby killers and the child mutilators together and Moloch will be ecstatic. Progressive and promiscuous women serve him well. They are, after all, on the same team.

Temp Blog said...

"It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one."

The legislature could write and pass all the laws they want, but the Dem governor will sign none of them unless they are creating a state "right" to abortion up to crowning, for any reason, any time, and allowing for use of state money to pay for them in the name of "equity".

So the reason that there has been no abortion law since Dobbs is because the GOP legislature can't pass one that the Dem governor will sign.

The power pendulum in WI will swing to the fascists controlled by Soros money much like it has in MN and MI. It's been bound to do so since the GOP has had the legislature for so long. WI citizens can prepare to be screwed.

The one good thing is as the state becomes a shithole we'll get fewer refugees from IL.

Temp Blog said...

"It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one."

The legislature could write and pass all the laws they want, but the Dem governor will sign none of them unless they are creating a state "right" to abortion up to crowning, for any reason, any time, and allowing for use of state money to pay for them in the name of "equity".

So the reason that there has been no abortion law since Dobbs is because the GOP legislature can't pass one that the Dem governor will sign.

The power pendulum in WI will swing to the fascists controlled by Soros money much like it has in MN and MI. It's been bound to do so since the GOP has had the legislature for so long. WI citizens can prepare to be screwed.

The one good thing is as the state becomes a shithole we'll get fewer refugees from IL.

Temp Blog said...

"It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one."

The legislature could write and pass all the laws they want, but the Dem governor will sign none of them unless they are creating a state "right" to abortion up to crowning, for any reason, any time, and allowing for use of state money to pay for them in the name of "equity".

So the reason that there has been no abortion law since Dobbs is because the GOP legislature can't pass one that the Dem governor will sign.

The power pendulum in WI will swing to the fascists controlled by Soros money much like it has in MN and MI. It's been bound to do so since the GOP has had the legislature for so long. WI citizens can prepare to be screwed.

The one good thing is as the state becomes a shithole we'll get fewer refugees from IL.

Chuck said...

Charlie Sykes does an exemplary, comprehensive summary of the WI Supreme Court race here:

https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/a-stark-judicial-choice-in-wisconsin

Iman said...

“Kelly being said to have supported looking overturning the 2020 election is not a subtle hint that he is a GOP Trump devotee, but feel free to mansplain that they are not 'officially' IDed by party.”

One must not rule out the distinct possibility the man may’ve grown tired and sickened by the Democrat’s bad faith, malfeasance and demented actions.

Gahrie said...


OK... out of curiosity, what are the arguments for tossing out Wisconsin's abortion law besides: "I don't like it!"?

Does it violate the Wisconsin Constitution? Because the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled it doesn't violate the U.S. Constitution. What fig leaf would the Leftwingers on the Wisconsin Supreme Court use?

JAORE said...

" The candidates are officially not identified by party. So the GOP didn't run him".

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more. Say no more.

Butkus51 said...

Republicans pounce.

Achilles said...

Chuck said...
Charlie Sykes does an exemplary, comprehensive summary of the WI Supreme Court race here:

https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/a-stark-judicial-choice-in-wisconsin


Other than the globalist billionaires that prop sykes up, nobody give a shit what he says or thinks.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger Chuck said...
Charlie Sykes does an exemplary, comprehensive summary of the WI Supreme Court race here:

Fake sophist turncoat provides predicable analysis as he struggles to maintain relevancy with his new found liberal fanbase. Sykes has also been seen wandering his backyard, digging random holes, looking for his soul.

who-knew said...

Ann Althouse said...
There's a very retrograde abortion statute from the 1800s that seems to be in force here. It's too bad the legislature can't just repeal or amend it, and as a consequence many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one. It's monumentally stupid, but... abortion has been skewing politics for a long, long time.

I find this statement curious. For starters, why do you say "seems to be in force"? It's a law. It was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, it's never been repealed so why does it only "seem" to be in force. Admittedly that was a long time ago but I bet the laws against murder and armed robbery date back just as far. Secondly you say that the "legislature can't just repeal or amend it" when in fact they can do exactly that anytime they want. Now for what are in some cases political and in some cases moral reasons, they don't seem to want to that. The answer to that is to elect different politicians to the legislature, an opportunity that comes every couple of years. Finally, you say "many people who might not want a liberal state supreme court are going to be forced to vote for one." which, at least to me, implies that you think the state supreme can toss the law out. But as was asked by another commentator, on what legal grounds? I don't want to put words into your mouth but the statement d=seems to imply that people should or will vote for the liberal candidate because they beiieve that this will allow the legislature to be bypassed and let the court change the law. And on that point, I'm afraid you are right. Protasiewicz as been pretty open about her intent to be an activist liberal judge and rule based on whatever she things is right, the actual law and state constitution be damned.

gilbar said...

Does it violate the Wisconsin Constitution? Because the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled it doesn't violate the U.S. Constitution. What fig leaf would the Leftwingers on the Wisconsin Supreme Court use?

Clearly, it violates the "i don't like it" clause.. What MORE would they need?
Hell! the appropriation clause in the Wisconsin Constitution violates the "i don't like it" clause too!

Josephbleau said...

I read that the legislature of WI is close to being a veto proof majority republican. So they can pass what they want, possibly. If the SC says what they want is not kosher then what powers does the Legislature have in response?

rehajm said...

In statewide elections, the state is divided about 50-50, but in the state legislature and congressional delegation are divided in favor of the Republicans: 60-39 (Assembly), 20-12 (Senate) and 6-2 (Congressional delegation). That's extreme gerrymandering, and it's obviously unfair and, if the courts won't act, likely to be self perpetuating

The alternative and, with the recent evidence, now credible alternative theory is the liberals cooked the vote…

Drago said...

LLR Chuck: "Charlie Sykes does an exemplary,..."

LOL

No, actually, Pierre Omidyar funded Charlie "what child support payments?" Sykes, did not do an "exemplary" job.

He did what he has done his whole life, and what his father did before him: switch sides multiple times to always cash in. Sykes's father actually ran Gene McCarthy's campaign way back in 1968 and little Charlie was raised a good little liberal boy though he figured out that be pretending to be conservative and hook up with a Scott Walker and/or Paul Ryan later on he could continue the grift.

Sykes last incarnation as a "conservative" (LOL) ended in 2016 when Sykes tried to cash in as a fake conservative by being made head of the conservative Bradley Foundation. A very nice little gig that would have been.

Unfortunately for Sykes, the Bradley Foundation members were actually able to remember things from longer than 15 minutes ago and took one look at this grifter's chameleon act and told him to buzz off at which point Sykes realized his fake conservative grift (similar to LLR Chuck's fake conservative persona at Althouse blog) was no longer going to pay the bills.

So it was cash in with the lefty billionaires time just like the neo-cons.

Too funny.

jameswhy said...

So the Supremes overturned Roe saying (in effect) these hot-button partisan issues should be debated and solved by the legislative institutions in the various states, not by judicial decree from on high. That's because, unlike those high and mighty judges, we the People can elect representatives to argue the case the way we want, and if we don't like what they do, we can fire them and hire (elect) someone else. Which not only makes a lot of sense, but was the way we in this country traditionally addressed hot-button issues. So this Judge Prata lady seems to be saying to the voters: "No, elect me and I'll take care of that pesky abortion issue by issuing decrees from on high, just like they did with Roe!" Which, based on the last 50 years of experience in which the abortion issue never went away, seems to be exactly the WRONG thing to do! The Wisconsin legislature, not the WI Supremes, seems to be the place so solve the issue. And if the legislature does not act ... well that's a form of action, too, is it not? The same applies to the gerrymandering issue: that is a legislative duty, every ten years. You don't like the districts they drew? Fire those legislators and hire new ones more to your liking. That's how democracy is supposed to work in a constitutional republic. Not the autocracy proposed by Judge P

Ann Althouse said...

@who-knew

There are arguments — desuetude.

Doug said...

To the voters of Wisconsin: keep voting liberal/dem until first Milwaukee, and then the entire state, is nothing but rubble and corpses.

Narayanan said...

StoughtonSconnie said...
Ann, I agree that the 1849 statute is retrograde, and I say that as a pro-lifer. That said, the Assembly Speaker floated exceptions to the law, and Evers made it clear that he would veto that unless the law goes to the status quote ante. It’s not just one side playing politics on this.
==========
ante 1849 or ante [some other date]
so what was ante 1849 that brought about this retrograde statute?
all I know is >> WI was admitted to the union as the 30th state in 1848.

Gahrie said...

There are arguments — desuetude.

So the U.S. Supreme Court wrongly decides that there is a Constitutional right to an abortion, which causes a valid state law to become unenforceable. Then a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court overturns the previous decision and rules it was incorrect, returning the issue to the states, which makes the law enforceable again.

Your response is that the law is now moot because, due to the U.S. Supreme Court's error, the state was prevented from enforcing the law? Isn't there a doctrine about not rewarding bad acts? How can this survive an appeal to the federal courts?


I guess it's better than a penumbra from an emanation...

Narayanan said...

also learning ... WI is birthplace of R party!
I had always wondered why Ayn Rand chose to debut-deliver her talk on ethics in WI

'Enraged by the recent passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Alvan Bovay convened a meeting at a schoolhouse in Ripon to create a new political party that would defend against the expansion of slavery. It was during this meeting, on March 20, 1854, that the Republican Party was established.'

who-knew said...

"desuetude" OK, that makes some sense. Would that make all abortion laws from pre- Roe v Wade obsolete? After all, I assume the main reason the law hasn't been enforced for decades is that Roe v Wade overrode it. Or is there evidence that it wasn't enforced in Wisconsin even before Roe? If it was enforced before Roe, I think that would argue against desuetude, but maybe not. Does the fact that hospitals and doctors refused to perform abortions because it was illegal affect the desuetude argument? If that's the grounds pro-abortion litigation takes, it will make for an interesting case. I wish I trusted the liberals on our supreme court to take the arguments seriously and not just vote their preferred policy outcome.

Political Junkie said...

Narayanan..WI also produced Ed Gein, Joe McCarthy, Liberace, and Mark Ruffalo.

StoughtonSconnie said...

@Narayanan: Status quo ante Dobbs. AKA abortion on demand basically until the child, er I mean clump of cells, is completely out of the “birthing person”. If the GOP majority could get their act together and pass a law allowing abortion up to 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest or threat the the life of the mother, aka the general standard for civilized countries, Evers would veto. 20 weeks? Veto. 37 weeks and four days? Veto.

Gospace said...

redraw Wisconsin’s heavily gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps,

having just looked at Wisconin's senate and assembly maps, the districts are far more campact than most other states. The heavily Democrat areas have small compact areas that load them up with, well, Democrats.

Wisconisn has 72 counties. Looking at some data, in the 2022 gubernatorial election, Democrats won 14 of those counties, and the Democrat, Tony Evers, was elected. The most lopside D-R votes? Dane county- 3.8-1 D followed by Milwaukee 2.5-1 D. Total statewide- 1.07-1. Either county, all by itself, provided the winning margin of 90,239 votes. No R-D county was over 3-1.

If you're going to make any kind of district maps that follow existing boundaries as much as possible and maintain compactness- you're apparently going to have a lopsided legislature in Wisconisn because Democrats choose to live packed together as close as possible. Extreme gerrymandering would be required to bring the legislature close to that 1.07 to 1 total vote balance for governor.

n.n said...

Six weeks to baby meets granny in legal state (i.e. sentience).

That said, a twilight faith, a pro-choice religion, a politically congruent construct, a class-disordered ideology.

n.n said...

the child, er I mean clump of cells

The - carbon - clump of cells. Human rites are performed for social, redistributive, clinical, political, criminal, and fair weather progress.