Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice accuses liberals of ‘raw exercise of overreaching power’

MADISON, Wis. — The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court accused her liberal colleagues of a “raw exercise of overreaching power” after they flexed their new majority Wednesday and fired the director of the state’s court docket system.

The 4 liberal justices, on simply their second day as a majority on the court docket after 15 years below conservative management, voted to fireplace Randy Koschnick. Koschnick held the job for six years after serving for 18 years as a decide and working unsuccessfully as a conservative in 2009 towards then-Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a liberal.

“To say that I am disappointed in my colleagues is an understatement,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, now a member of the three-justice conservative minority, mentioned in a prolonged assertion after Koschnick was fired.

Ziegler mentioned the transfer undermined her authority as chief justice. She known as it unauthorized, procedurally and legally flawed, and reckless. But she mentioned she wouldn’t try to cease it out of concern that different court docket staff could possibly be equally fired.

“My colleagues’ unprecedented dangerous conduct is the raw exercise of overreaching power,” she mentioned. “It is shameful. I fear this is only the beginning.”

Fellow conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley blasted the transfer in a social media put up, saying, “Political purges of court employees are beyond the pale.”

Koschnick known as the transfer “apparently political.”

“I think that portends bad things for the court’s decision making going forward,” he mentioned.

The justices who voted to fireplace Koschnick didn’t reply to a request for remark left with the court docket’s spokesperson.

Ziegler famous that when conservatives took management of the court docket in 2008, they didn’t act to fireplace the director of state courts at the moment, John Voelker. He remained within the place for six extra years earlier than resigning.

Ziegler praised Koschnick for his 18 years as a decide and his efforts as director of the state court docket system, a job that features hiring court docket personnel and sustaining the statewide laptop system for courts. She additionally applauded him for addressing the psychological well being wants of individuals within the court docket system, tackling a court docket reporter scarcity and holding courts working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Koschnick mentioned he may have accepted his firing – and ensured a extra easy transition along with his successor – if the justices had waited to do it at a deliberate administrative assembly subsequent month. Instead, he mentioned, court docket employees are boxing up his private belongings whereas he’s in New York at a judicial convention.