Wisconsin Supreme Court rules Meagan Wolfe can remain state’s top elections official

The Wisconsin Supreme Court says the state’s top election official can keep her job despite Republican lawmakers’ efforts to remove her from office.

In a unanimous decision written by conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, the court rejected an argument from state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and other Republicans claiming the Wisconsin Elections Commission must appoint a new administrator. That’s not possible, Ziegler wrote, because “no vacancy in the position exists.”

“The legislators’ separation-of-powers argument relies on the conclusion that WEC has a duty to appoint a new administrator when an administrator’s term expires,” Zeigler said. “Because this court rejects that WEC has a duty to appoint a new administrator absent a vacancy in the position, the legislators’ argument necessarily fails.”

In a statement, Wolfe applauded the court’s ruling.

“We’re pleased that the Supreme Court unanimously found in favor of the Commission’s position,” Wolfe said. “And I’m excited to continue to work with elections officials around the state as we prepare for the Feb. 18 Spring Primary and the April 1 Spring Election.”

Friday’s order upheld a 2022 ruling from the court’s former conservative majority, which found Republican political appointee Fred Prehn could stay on Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board past his term. In that case, the court’s conservative majority found that because the Senate never held a vote to confirm a replacement for Prehn, state law allowed him to stay in his role.

In Friday’s ruling, while all justices agreed Wolfe can stay, some took issue with the rationale behind the decision.

Outgoing Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who dissented in the 2022 decision along with other liberals, said Friday’s ruling “should not be taken as an endorsement of the Prehn court’s reasoning.”

“The charge of this court is to interpret our statutes with a long view, encouraging stability and the functioning of government in a way that makes sense,” Walsh Bradley wrote. “At the very least, we should question an interpretation that perpetuates ‘disorder and chaos.’”

Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley used her concurring opinion to accuse her liberal counterparts of having a change of heart, saying that justices “cannot have it both ways.” 

“None of the Prehn dissenters disclose a principled basis for dissenting in Prehn but joining the majority opinion in this case, suggesting that only preferred results produce such inconsistency,” Bradley said.

Bryna Godar is a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She told WPR it wasn’t surprising to see liberal justices criticize the Prehn ruling while not attempting to overturn it because neither Republican lawmakers nor the Wisconsin Elections Commission requested a review of that decision.

“That is not typically something that you see the court doing, if it’s not something that was raised by the parties,” Godar said. “So, I don’t actually find it very surprising that they decided not to overturn Prehn without being asked to.” 

The bottom line, Godar said, is that Wolfe can remain in her job, “unless and until the Wisconsin Elections Commission chooses to do something that would take her out of that position, or appoint a different administrator.” 

GOP leaders criticize ruling

Republican leaders in the state Senate said they were disappointed in the court’s ruling, arguing their position “would have subjected Meagan Wolfe to further legislative oversight.”

“Instead, by refusing to reappoint an administrator, three liberal commissioners have decided that Wisconsinites do not get a say in who administers our elections,” read the statement by LeMahieu and current Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk.

The comment is a reference to the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s Democratic appointees, Ann Jacobs, Mark Thomsen and Joseph Czarnezki. The three abstained from a vote to reappoint Wolfe before her term ended July 1, 2023, which preserved the status quo, leaving Wolfe in the job on her initial appointment, where she remains to this day.

The abstentions enraged Republicans who had joined conservative activists angry about how Wolfe oversaw the 2020 presidential election, when COVID-19 changed the way clerks handled voting and President Donald Trump cast doubts about his loss to former President Joe Biden.

Despite the commission’s deadlock, Republican state senators moved to fire Wolfe in September 2023.

Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul immediately filed a lawsuit after the Senate’s vote, which he called a Republican “stunt.”

The next month, former Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, asked Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to begin impeachment proceedings against Wolfe. He claimed her refusal to vacate her seat violated state law and amounted to “corrupt conduct in office.”

While LeMahieu initially claimed the Senate’s firing was legally binding, attorneys representing him and other Republicans later told a Dane County judge the Senate’s vote was merely “symbolic” and agreed that Wolfe was “lawfully holding over” in her position. Still, they asked the court to order the elections commission to appoint a new administrator.

Jacobs, the elections commission chair, told WPR she was “delighted” by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday because it affirmed that Wolfe is legally “holding over” in her position.

“So, this is the law in Wisconsin,” Jacobs said. “It was properly applied. When you don’t like the law and you’re a legislator, go change it.”