Democrats eye Wisconsin high court’s new liberal majority to win abortion and redistricting rulings
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will flip from majority conservative to liberal control in August and Democrats have high hopes the change will lead to the state’s abortion ban being overturned and its maps redrawn to weaken GOP control of the Legislature and congressional districts.
Democrats in the perennial battleground state focused on abortion to elect a liberal majority to the court for the first time in 15 years. The Democratic Party spent $8 million to tilt the court’s 4-3 conservative majority by one seat with the election of Janet Protasiewicz, who spoke in favor of abortion rights and against the Republican-drawn map in a campaign. Her April victory broke national spending records for a state Supreme Court race.
Still, there are no guarantees. Republicans were angered when a conservative candidate they backed in 2019 turned out to sometimes side with liberal justices.
While the court is widely expected to weigh in on abortion and redistricting, liberals also are talking about bringing new challenges to school choice, voter ID, and the 12-year-old law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.
Some issues could take years to reach the court, said liberal attorney Lester Pines, who has argued numerous times before the state Supreme Court. Unlike under the conservative majority, Pines said the new liberal court will be unlikely to rule on cases before lower courts have heard them.
“They’re not going to do it,” Pines said.
There is already a pending case challenging Wisconsin’s pre-Civil War era abortion ban, and a circuit court judge ruled earlier this month that it can proceed.
