Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear arguments in lawsuit over Meagan Wolfe ‘holdover’ appointment
By By Rich Kremer Wisconsin Public Radio,
2024-11-18Justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments Monday about whether Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe can keep her job amid a years-long Republican push to oust her.
The dispute has been driven by conservatives who are angry with the way Wolfe oversaw the 2020 election, when COVID-19 changed the way clerks handled voting, and President-elect Donald Trump cast doubt on his loss to President Joe Biden.
The case is the latest example of an ongoing power struggle over political appointments in Wisconsin. It will test whether the court’s liberal majority still opposes a 2022 decision by the court’s former conservative majority allowing appointees to stay in their positions until someone new is confirmed by the Wisconsin Senate.
In September 2023, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit following a Senate vote to fire Wolfe after her four-year term as the state’s top elections official expired. Kaul argued the vote had no legal effect because the Supreme Court had recently allowed Fred Prehn, a Republican, to remain on the state Natural Resources Board past his term.
In January, a Dane County Judge sided with Kaul and ruled Wolfe was a legal “holdover” appointment. During that case, attorneys representing Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and other top legislative Republicans, admitted their vote to fire Wolfe was merely symbolic and had no legal impact.
LeMahieu, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and former Wisconsin Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Pewaukee, appealed the case, which was ultimately taken up by the Supreme Court’s liberal majority in September. While the Prehn ruling looms large, the appeal argues the state law that created the elections commission requires the group to appoint a successor when the administrator’s term expires. Wolfe’s appointment ended nearly 17 months ago.
3 Supreme Court liberals opposed holdover appointments in 2022 ruling
The current case over Wolfe’s appointment represents a sort of political flip with regard to appointees overstaying their terms.
In 2022, Evers called the Prehn decision “wrongheaded,” part of an “erosion of Democratic institutions at the hands of Republicans in this state.” While Kaul is now using the Prehn ruling to defend Wolfe, two years ago he said it allowed an “antidemocratic situation to continue indefinitely.”
What’s yet to be seen is how the court’s current liberal majority will treat the Prehn precedent. In her 2022 dissent, liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet called it “absurd” and claimed it steers state government “directly into disorder and chaos” while threatening the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch.
Legal experts concerned about politicization of appointment process
Marquette University Law School Professor Kali Murray told WPR one notable difference between the 2022 and 2024 holdover cases is that Republicans never tried to oust Prehn from his NRB position, whereas they did attempt to fire Wolfe.
Murray said there’s an expectation that the Supreme Court’s liberal majority will lean on the previous majority’s Prehn ruling to decide in Democrats’ favor.
“That indicates that the parties view this as primarily a tactical case in which the personnel change in front of the Supreme Court is ultimately going to make the political problem end, and that’s my concern as a lawyer,” Murray said.
Murray said the bigger issue is a breakdown of past norms between the state’s legislative and executive branches.
In addition to Prehn remaining in his position against Evers’ wishes, Republican senators have delayed confirmation votes on dozens of the governor’s political appointments.
Now, Democrats are using arguments they recently opposed to keep Wolfe, a nonpartisan administrator whose appointment they support.
“I think there’s a bit of a knife fight going on right now between executive branch and the legislative branch,” Murray said. “I think Attorney General Kaul and Gov. Evers decided to bring a knife to a knife fight.”
Bryna Godar is a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She said one of the complicating factors in the Wolfe case is that none of the parties are asking the court to overrule the 2022 decision on holdover appointments.
She said it’s rare “for a court to voluntarily overrule” a prior decision without parties asking justices. Still, Godar said the battle over Wolfe’s appointment wouldn’t be happening if not for the Prehn decision two years ago.
“And so, we’re kind of taking that as a given rule in Wisconsin, and going from there,” Godar said. “And saying, OK then, what does that mean in this situation?”
Godar shared Murray’s concern over the politicization of the appointments in Wisconsin and said she thinks it’s “undermining the democratic nature of the process.”
Comments
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Laura Ingraham
Morristown Minute
NJ Congresswoman Indicted on Federal Charges After Chaos at ICE Facility
Critics call indictment a dangerous escalation against elected officials performing constitutional duties during immigration facility oversight. NEW JERSEY - The federal indictment of U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver has sparked sharp criticism from civil liberties advocates and constitutional scholars who view the charges as a troubling use of prosecutorial power against an elected official engaged in lawful oversight duties. McIver, who represents parts of Essex County and Newark, was charged with forcibly impeding federal officers during a May 9, 2025, incident at Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility in Newark.
The HD Post
Morristown Minute
Northern State Prison Officer Accepted Bribes to Smuggle Contraband
NORTHERN NEW JERSEY - A senior correctional police officer at Northern State Prison in Newark has been charged with multiple offenses for allegedly accepting bribes and attempting to smuggle contraband into the facility, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Northern Kentucky Tribune
Joe Heller: Cartoonist on Trump/Musk, Father’s Day, Ukraine drones, distractions, D-Day
Joe Heller was the editorial cartoonist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Green Bay, Wis., from 1985 until being laid off in July 2013. He still draws several cartoons a week and distributes them through his own syndicate. Through Heller Syndication, his cartoons regularly appear in more than 400 newspapers, making him the most successful self-syndicated editorial cartoonist in the nation. His cartoons are reprinted many times in USA Today, Denver Post, St. Paul Pioneer Press, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek Japan, The Week and The Washington Post. Joe’s cartoons have won numerous distinctions, including 10 Best of Gannett awards, eight Milwaukee Press Club awards and two Honorable mentions for the John Fischetti Award. He lives in Green Bay with his wife, Pamela. He is a regular featured cartoonist for the NKyTribune.
Arizona Luminaria
Local police join ICE deportation force in record numbers despite warnings program lacks oversight
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Arizona Luminaria.Leer en español. Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, U.S. immigration officials have deputized a record number of local police to function as deportation agents, despite repeated warnings from government watchdogs since 2018 that the program does not adequately train and oversee officers.
Comments /