A left-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court justice was endorsed on the campaign trail last year by activists that, around the same time, paid major sums to a Democratic law firm now pressing the court to order new congressional maps ahead of the 2024 election, records show.
Republican lawmakers demanded the recusal last week of Badger State justice Janet Protasiewicz from taking up a redistricting motion due to her criticism of Wisconsin’s “rigged” maps while running in 2023. That heavily scrutinized effort to overhaul Wisconsin elections is being led by Democratic superlawyer Marc Elias, whose influential Elias Law Group raked in more than $680,000 combined for “legal services” in 2023 from left-wing groups that, in turn, rallied to support Protasiewicz, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
That Protasiewicz was boosted in 2023 by Emily’s List, End Citizens United, and Family Friendly Action PAC is likely to prompt further calls from the GOP for the justice to step away from the Elias Law Group’s motion, which seeks a new congressional map in time for the election this November. Protasiewicz waved away requests from conservatives last year for her to recuse from lawsuits in connection to the state’s GOP-drawn legislative maps, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled were unconstitutional in December 2023. Democrats have a 4-3 court majority.
“Janet Protasiewicz ran on a platform of changing Wisconsin’s political maps,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), who filed the recusal motion for the congressional maps alongside state politicians and four members of Congress in Wisconsin’s delegation, told the Washington Examiner. “Obviously, a lot of support she got was to reach that decision. That’s a huge problem. It’s a huge scandal.”
Protasiewicz declined to comment for this story. Elias Law Firm did not respond to a request for comment.
Protasiewicz’s victory over Republican Wisconsin judge Daniel Kelly last April capped off a high-profile race with national implications that saw spending top a record $42 million. The justice, whom Republicans sought to paint as soft on crime over her criminal sentencing record, received hefty financial help in the form of roughly $9 million that the state’s Democratic Party transferred to Protasiewicz’s campaign. Organizations funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros also spent at least $2.8 million backing Protasiewicz, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Protasiewicz later asserted she would “likely” recuse from any cases involving the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Now, Wisconsin Republicans have determined Protasiewicz cannot impartially rule on the Elias case, which was brought on behalf of four voters in Wisconsin and comes after congressional district boundaries were approved by the state’s Supreme Court in 2022. Still, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission rejected a flurry of formal complaints last year from Republicans accusing Protasiewicz of violating ethics rules with her prior remarks about legislative maps being “rigged” and “unfair.”
Director Jason Snead of the conservative Honest Elections Project nonprofit group told the Washington Examiner that Protasiewicz is an “activist” who has “openly telegraphed how she would rule in specific cases.”
But certain indirect financial ties between Protasiewicz and groups that endorsed her could also lead to ethical landmines for the justice.
In February 2023, Protasiewicz was on the receiving end of an endorsement from Emily’s List, which reportedly marked the first time in the feminist advocacy group’s 38-year history it backed a candidate in a state judicial race. Laphonza Butler, then-Emily’s List president and now-U.S. senator in California, asserted her confidence Protasiewicz would be “standing up to extremism” as the “rights and freedoms of millions of Wisconsinites hinge on a Wisconsin Supreme Court committed to reproductive freedom, democracy, and voting rights for all.”
Emily’s List shelled out a staggering $609,100 throughout 2023 to Elias Law Group, according to documents on file with the Federal Election Commission. During the two years prior, Emily’s List had paid the firm $581,600 combined, filings show.
Elias Law Group, which calls itself “the nation’s largest law firm focused on representing the Democratic Party, Democratic campaigns, nonprofit organizations, and individuals committed to securing a progressive future,” is headquartered in Washington, D.C., though it has an office in Seattle and operates in various states. The Democratic Congressional Committee paid Elias Law Group more than $4.7 million in 2023, FEC records show.
Protasiewicz, a 61-year-old former circuit court judge in Milwaukee, was also endorsed by the Democratic-aligned End Citizens United PAC in March of last year. The PAC’s president, Tiffany Muller, called Protasiewicz “a fair and impartial jurist, who will always put the constitution and the rights of Wisconsinites ahead of radical partisanship.”
“With the flood of Big Money attempting to restrict the freedom to vote nationwide, we can trust Judge Protasiewicz to make sure Wisconsin voters have access to the ballot box so that they can vote and have their vote counted,” Muller said at the time.
From February 2023 to September 2023, Elias Law Firm collected more than $65,000 in “legal services” fees from End Citizens United, FEC records show.
End Citizens United also sent Elias Law Firm more than $84,000 for “payroll” and “legal services” in 2021 and 2022 combined, according to a Washington Examiner review of campaign finance disclosures. Muller has notably made personal donations totaling $6,000 over the years to the campaign for Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), among other Democrats.
End Citizens United transferred $52,500 combined in two separate payments in March 2023 to the DCCC, just weeks after End Citizens United issued its endorsement of Protasiewicz, according to FEC records.
“Given Janet Protasiewicz’s previous comments prejudging the case, the money she has taken directly from the Democrat party, and the direct involvement from the DCCC with Marc Elias, it’s obvious she should recuse herself from this case,” Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
Meanwhile, Elias Law Group pocketed $29,798 between 2021 and 2022 from Family Friendly Action PAC, which spent millions of dollars in 2020 helping to elect President Joe Biden and also endorsed Protasiewicz.
Family Friendly Action PAC is part of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, a left-wing group whose PAC directed $5,970 in 2023 to Elias Law Group.
“The pure partisanship is overwhelmingly blatant,” Marinella said.
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The Wisconsin Supreme Court is under a tight March 15 deadline to decide on the congressional maps challenge. The state’s congressional primary is Aug. 13.
The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, End Citizens United, and Emily’s List did not reply to requests for comment.
