The people have spoken, and it’s time for this assault on Justice Protasiewicz to end.

Statement by Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale on the unconstitutional threat to impeach newly-elected Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz:

“In an eleven-point landslide victory this spring, the people of Wisconsin decisively elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz to the State Supreme Court. Now, in a shameless, politically-motivated attempt to disregard the will of the voters, Assembly Speaker Vos threatened to impeach her before she heard a single case. This desperate authoritarian attempt to preserve partisan advantage is an affront to our democracy. It must be opposed by Wisconsinites of all political parties. 

As a coequal branch of government, it is the role of the judiciary to ensure compliance with the law and Constitution. We must never allow our courts to become the political enforcers of any one party or group. The baseless accusations against Justice Protasiewicz that Rep. Vos is attempting to sell to the people of Wisconsin have already been summarily dismissed by the state’s independent judiciary commission. The people have spoken, and it’s time for this assault on Justice Protasiewicz to end. 

A great Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, once warned that unless we are vigilant, government of the people, by the people, for the people, might perish from the earth. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO calls on all union members to contact their elected representatives and make it clear to Speaker Vos and others in the Legislature that the people of Wisconsin will not stand for any further attempts to strip us of our democratic rights by attempting to overturn a free and fair election.”