{"id":4707,"date":"2023-08-04T17:04:43","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T17:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2023-08-04T17:09:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T17:09:15","slug":"audrey-skwierawski-appointment-is-unconstitutional-senate-majority-leader-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4707","title":{"rendered":"Audrey Skwierawski Appointment Is Unconstitutional, Senate Majority Leader Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/audrey-skwierawski\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"audrey<\/p>\n

The state Supreme Court\u2019s liberal majority has already been accused of violating the state Constitution twice in its first week.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The state Senate Majority leader says the state Supreme Court\u2019s appointment of Milwaukee County Judge Audrey Skwierawski as interim state courts director is \u201cunconstitutional\u201d because of a state law barring sitting judges from holding non-judicial offices during their terms.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second action in the new liberal majority\u2019s first week to raise constitutional and legal concerns; the first was the out-of-protocol firing of state courts director Randy Koschnick, a conservative, which has drawn bipartisan criticism.<\/a><\/p>\n

The liberal justices named Skwierawski to replace Koschnick on an interim basisl; they have refused to provide any reason for his firing. The Supreme Court\u2019s press release said<\/a> that Skwierawski would take a leave from her Milwaukee County judgeship, leaving a courtroom vacant in a county currently battling a massive backlog that is imperiling public safety.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Right Now first raised this issue<\/a> on our Twitter page.<\/p>\n

\n

Did the liberal justices further violate the law by choosing sitting Judge Audrey Skwierawski as interim state courts director? Here’s the statute. How can she hold a non judicial office during her term? State statutes\u2014-> pic.twitter.com\/unwN0yDNRa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) August 3, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The liberal justices cut out the conservative chief justice, Annette Ziegler, when it came to the Koschnick firing even though the state Constitution and court rules give her authority over administrative processes. Ziegler called the firing<\/a> a legally flawed unauthorized action and reckless conduct; conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley called it<\/a> an abuse of power and political purge. The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee said the justices <\/a>violated the law, state Constitution and their oaths.<\/p>\n

Now State Sen. Devin LeMahieu, a Republican, believes the liberal justices violated the Constitution again with Skwierawski\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

He wrote in a news release, \u201cArticle VII Section 10 of the Wisconsin Constitution states, \u201cNo judge of any court of record shall hold any other office of public trust, except a judicial office, during the term for which elected.\u201d Skwierawski is a sitting Milwaukee County judge. There is already case law indicating judges can\u2019t alter their terms by resigning; this law is why former AG Brad Schimel, now a Waukesha County judge, could not run again for AG.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court Rules state, \u201cThe director of state courts shall be the chief\u00a0nonjudicial<\/em> officer of the court system in the state,\u201d LeMahieu wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Skwierawski\u2019s term on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court does not expire until July 31, 2025,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn only their 3rd<\/sup> day, the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has telegraphed their intention to disregard the Constitution they\u2019ve sworn to uphold to achieve partisan revenge,\u201d he said in a news release. \u201c<\/strong>Wisconsinites should be troubled by this blatant disregard for the Constitution and rule of law.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

LeMahieu called the Supreme Court appointment \u201cthe new liberal majority\u2019s unconstitutional appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

We reached out to the state courts public information officer to ask how Swierawski could assume the post in light of that passage. We also reached out to Skwierawski. We have not heard back.<\/p>\n

As we reported before, two sources tell us <\/a>the liberal justices wanted to choose their own Democratic political operative Sachin Chheda for the position, despite his lack of court experience, but that choice was suddenly scuttled before a formal offer was made, and they settled on Skwierawski, a Scott Walker appointee, instead.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the day before new liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn in, Koschnick says liberal justice Jill Karofsky called him and told him the court had the votes to fire him, an action that occurred Wednesday, the day after Janet Protasiewicz was sworn in. The other liberal justices involved are Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Dallet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/audrey-skwierawski\/ The state Supreme Court\u2019s liberal majority has already been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":4709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4710,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions\/4710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}