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49-515: The Brennan Center's stated mission is to "work to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all." Its president is Michael Waldman , former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton . The Brennan Center for Justice was founded in 1995 by the family and former law clerks of Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. , whom The Washington Post called "the progressive voice of

98-580: A shadow docket opinion. The U.S. Supreme Court stated that the adhoc process adopted by the Wisconsin Supreme ;Court had failed to give proper consideration to questions of racial gerrymandering under the federal Voting Rights Act. Without further deliberation, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's action, Hagedorn switched his vote to the Republican plan, although it suffered from an identical process defect. The Republican legislative map

147-825: A September 2000 interview with PBS , he discussed his experiences at the White House, including his role as speechwriter, President Clinton's communication style, and the White House response to events such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the Lewinsky scandal . On April 9, 2021, Waldman was named to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States by President Joe Biden . Waldman appears frequently on television and radio to discuss public policy ,

196-476: A choice of three schools, with the other two being Harvard University and Georgetown University . The Brennan Center is part think tank , part public interest law firm , and part advocacy group. The organization is involved in issues such as opposing voter ID laws that it believes unduly restrict voter registration, and other barriers to registration and voting, and advocates for redistricting reform and campaign finance reform . The Brennan Center's work

245-563: A liberal majority to the Court in 2023. Their demand was targeted at the newest justice, Janet Protasiewicz , and was paired with a threat from the Republican Assembly speaker to begin an impeachment. At issue was the allegation that Protasiewicz had pre-judged pending redistricting cases, because she had remarked during the campaign that Wisconsin's legislative maps were "rigged". Several complaints were also filed against Protasiewicz with

294-558: A nonprofit law and policy institute. Waldman has led the center since 2005. Waldman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1982 and a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law in 1987. During law school, Waldman worked on the New York University Law Review . From 1993 to 1995, Waldman was a special assistant to President Bill Clinton for policy coordination. As

343-676: A senior advisor to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission . Supreme Court of Wisconsin The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in Wisconsin . The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions , appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Supreme Court normally sits in its main hearing room in

392-462: Is composed of seven justices who are elected in statewide, non-partisan elections. Each justice is elected for a ten-year term. Importantly, only one justice may be elected in any year. This avoids the sudden shifts in jurisprudence commonly seen in other state supreme courts, where the court composition can be radically shifted if two or three justices are simultaneously targeted for an electoral challenge based on their views on controversial issues. In

441-403: Is divided into three programs—Democracy, Justice, and Liberty & National Security. Past programs focused on criminal justice, poverty, and economic justice. The organization has focus on issues both at the national level in the United States but also at the state and local levels of government. The Brennan Center opposes mass incarceration and produces research on causes of violent crime in

490-729: Is the author of several books, including: Waldman spent the majority of his childhood in Great Neck , New York. He is married to Elizabeth Fine, counsel to New York Governor Kathy Hochul . She was general counsel to the New York City Council and deputy assistant attorney general for the United States during the Clinton administration. Together they have three children. Waldman and his family reside in Brooklyn , New York. His brother, Steven Waldman , co-founded Beliefnet and formerly served as

539-533: Is undue burden carried by certain communities. Numerous lawsuits have been brought against states in such cases. By August 1, 2016, rulings in five cases: Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, overturned certain voter ID and other provisions, requiring states to make alternatives acceptable for the November 2016 election cycle. The Brennan Center research has also indicated that instances of voter fraud by citizens and non-citizens are very rare. In 2021,

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588-582: The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA). The law banned soft money contributions to political campaigns . The organization helped Senator Dick Durbin write the Fair Elections Now Act . The Brennan Center advocated for the passage in 2010 of New York's law ending prison-based gerrymandering , and was part of a coalition of organizations that sought to defend that law from a court challenge. The Brennan Center advocates for

637-515: The Democratic Party and related organizations, and conservatives have an equivalent relationship with the Republican Party . Justice Hagedorn was considered the court's "swing justice" prior to Justice Protasiewicz's investiture; while his campaign was supported by Republican organizations and he previously served as chief legal counsel to Republican governor Scott Walker , he has sided with

686-717: The presidency and the law . Appearances include Good Morning America ; PBS Newshour , CBS Evening News ; the O'Reilly Factor ; Nightline ; 60 Minutes ; Hardball with Chris Matthews ; CNN's Crossfire ; the Dylan Ratigan Show ; color commentary on NBC ( State of the Union ) and ABC ( Obama inaugural ); NPR's Morning Edition ; All Things Considered ; Fresh Air ; Diane Rehm ; The Colbert Report ; and many other programs. He writes frequently for publications including The New York Times , Washington Post , Newsweek , Slate and Democracy . Waldman

735-410: The 2016 race to $ 45 million in the 2023 race. A 2015 constitutional amendment changed the process by which the chief justice is selected. From 1889 to 2015, the chief justice was simply the longest continually-serving member of the court. The 2015 amendment changed the chief justice role to a two year term, elected by a majority of the members of the court. Opponents recognized this as an attempt by

784-717: The Brennan Center argued N.Y. State Bd. of Elections v. Lopez Torres before the United States Supreme Court . In 2008, the court ruled for the state. In 2015, the Brennan Center submitted an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of Wisconsin , urging the state not to overturn John Doe law , which allows the state to conduct criminal investigations in secret. The Brennan Center has been tracking states' legislation on voter ID laws and other barriers to voter registration and voting to determine whether there

833-450: The Brennan Center represented Ohio citizens groups in their efforts to stop gerrymandering and, after winning judgments in the state Supreme Court did not improve district maps, the Center supported a 2024 ballot initiative . In 2023, the Brennan Center surveyed election administrators, finding many plan on retiring before the 2024 presidential election. The Brennan Center filed a friend of

882-453: The Brennan Center, VoteRiders, and other organizations released research on proof of citizenship in the U.S., finding that more than 21 million Americans would not be able to quickly locate a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers as proof of citizenship within 24 hours. The research also concluded that nearly four million American citizens (two percent of U.S. citizens) lack access to any form of proof in citizenship. Later in 2024,

931-494: The Center also released a report focused on state-by-state redesigns of election rules in the aftermath of the 2020 election. As of the Brennan Center's 2021 annual report, the organization has received funding from: Michael Waldman Michael A. Waldman is an American attorney and presidential speechwriter and political advisor, currently serving as the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law ,

980-515: The Court adopted a rule that recusal is not required based solely on any endorsement or receipt of a lawful campaign contribution from a party or entity involved in the proceeding, and that a judge does not need to seek recusal where it would be based solely on a party in the case sponsoring an independent expenditure or issue advocacy communication in favor of the judge. Voting in favor of the new rule were Prosser, Gableman, Roggensack, and Ziegler. Voting against were Abrahamson, Crooks, and A. Bradley. In

1029-589: The Department of Health Services Andrea Palm, which extended the stay-at-home order previously issued by Governor Tony Evers. The portion of the order that kept all K-12 schools closed for the remainder of the school year remained in effect. The deciding vote to strike down the Secretary-designate's order was by Daniel Kelly , who had recently lost his bid for re-election to Jill Karofsky . The Wisconsin Supreme Court has played an increasingly important role in

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1078-583: The East Wing of the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison , Wisconsin . Since 1993, the court has also travelled, once or twice a year, to another part of the state to hear several cases as part of its "Justice on Wheels" program. The purpose of this program is to give the people of Wisconsin a better opportunity to understand the operations of the state supreme court and the court system. The court

1127-510: The Legislature passed two redistricting plans in consecutive sessions (1951 & 1953). At that time, the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Legislature to enact two redistricting plans for the same census. The following decade, the Court took the extraordinary step of drawing the map themselves, in 1964, after the Governor and Legislature had failed to come to an agreement. After

1176-511: The Republican legislature to empower the conservative majority on the court by removing liberal justice Shirley Abrahamson from the chief justice role. Republicans in the legislature said it was an effort to promote democracy on the court, following several years of contentious deliberations. Immediately after passage of the amendment, the conservative members of the court elected Patience Roggensack to replace Abrahamson as chief justice. Abrahmson sued in federal court, but eventually abandoned

1225-563: The United States . The Brennan Center has represented several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp , and also U.S. citizens or legal residents held as unlawful enemy combatants . Attorneys from the Brennan Center challenged a U.S. President 's authority to declare a prisoner to be an unlawful enemy combatant in the war on terror . They have also challenged the U.S. Congress 's power to deny habeas corpus to such prisoners. The Brennan Center assisted in drafting and enacting

1274-560: The Wisconsin Judicial Commission, but the commission quickly dismissed those complaints. On June 13, 2011, a confrontation between Justices David Prosser, Jr. and Ann Walsh Bradley occurred in Bradley's chambers. Prosser, Bradley, and the other justices (except N. Patrick Crooks ) were discussing the following day's decision that would overturn a ruling blocking the Wisconsin collective bargaining law. Witnesses stated that

1323-547: The Wisconsin Supreme Court. The election was held during the coronavirus pandemic , forcing many voters to choose between voting by mail, waiting in long lines for hours, or not participating at all. Conservative Justice Patience Roggensack did not seek re-election in 2023. Former conservative Justice Daniel Kelly faced progressive Judge Janet Protasiewicz on April 4, 2023, and lost. Judges Jennifer Dorow and Everett Mitchell also ran, but they were eliminated in

1372-410: The case. Wisconsin had adopted a limit of $ 1,000 for campaign contributions to judges, but it was unclear when mandatory recusal was required. The League of Women Voters petitioned the Court to require a judge to recuse himself or herself from a proceeding if the judge had received any campaign contributions from a party or entity involved in it. Instead, during its 2009–2010 term and by a 4–3 vote,

1421-619: The court briefing in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Moore v. Harper. In oral arguments on December 7, 2022, the Brennan Center urged the United States Supreme Court to allow the North Carolina Supreme Court to strike down the state legislature’s congressional map for violating the North Carolina Constitution. [1] The Brennan Center for Justice is a partner organization of VoteRiders . In 2024,

1470-463: The court's "least changes" guidance, nevertheless, the three conservatives who had established that guidance voted against his plan. The plan was adopted by the court's three liberals, A. Bradley , Dallet, and Karofsky, with the swing vote of Hagedorn. Wisconsin's Republican legislature, however, appealed the case to the United ;States Supreme Court, which threw out the Wisconsin decision in

1519-573: The court, although the justice so elected may decline the appointment. Prior to that amendment, the justice with the longest continuous service on the court served as the chief justice. While the court is officially nonpartisan, its members are generally regarded as having consistent ideological positions. Justices Dallet, Karofsky, Protasiewicz, and Ann Walsh Bradley are frequently described as liberals, while Justices Ziegler, Hagedorn, and Rebecca Bradley are described as conservatives. Liberal justices and candidates are endorsed and electorally supported by

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1568-518: The effort. In April 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic , the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled (virtually, due to the pandemic) that Governor Tony Evers could not delay the state's 2020 primary elections , despite public fears of COVID-19 . In May 2020, in response to a lawsuit brought by the Republican -led state legislature , the Court ruled 4–3 to strike down an order issued by Secretary-designate of

1617-406: The event of a vacancy on the court, the governor has the power to appoint an individual to the vacancy, but that justice must then stand for election in the first year in which no other justice's term expires. After passage of a state constitutional amendment on April 7, 2015, the chief justice of the court is elected for a term of 2 years by the vote of a majority of the justices then serving on

1666-527: The executive director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, then the capital's largest consumer lobbying office (1989–92). After working in the government, he was a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government (2001–03), teaching courses on political reform, public leadership and communications. He was a partner in a litigation law firm in New York City and Washington, D.C. In

1715-430: The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and related United States Supreme Court cases, the Wisconsin Supreme Court backed off from redistricting issues and deferred to federal courts. That changed after the United States Supreme Court case of Gill v. Whitford , in 2018, which significantly reduced federal jurisdiction of gerrymandering cases. In 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took on redistricting again. But

1764-527: The incident happened after Prosser had stated that he'd lost all confidence in the leadership of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson . Bradley later accused Prosser of putting her in a chokehold. Prosser denied the allegations and asked for "a proper review of the matter and the facts surrounding it". The incident was investigated by the Dane County Sheriff's Office. Witnesses to the incident disagreed about what had happened and neither Prosser nor Bradley

1813-430: The liberal justices in several noteworthy cases. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court decided Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. , holding 5–4 that a campaign expenditure of over $ 3 million by a corporate litigant to influence the election of a judge to the court that would hear its case, although legal, was an "extreme fact" that created a "probability of bias", thus requiring the judge to be recused from hearing

1862-425: The majority's decision to adopt a rule "proposed by special interest groups." The issue of recusal became a major controversy again after the 2023 judicial election, but with the ideological positions reversed. Conservatives justice Rebecca Bradley and chief justice Annette Ziegler abandoned their previous position, which favored narrow recusal rules, and instead urged a broad recusal standard after Wisconsin elected

1911-466: The modern court". Justice Brennan's idea of a living constitution figures largely into the center's work. The Brennan Center started with an initial grant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York of $ 25,000 in 1996. The Carnegie Corporation in years since has donated over $ 3,650,000. During the selection process of what school to center operations from, the Brennan Center selected NYU Law out of

1960-406: The opinion of Justice Roggensack, "when a judge is disqualified from participation, the votes of all who voted to elect that judge are cancelled for all issues presented by that case. Accordingly, recusal rules . . . must be narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest." In dissenting, Justice A. Bradley called the decision "a dramatic change to our judicial code of ethics" and took issue with

2009-419: The redistricting process in Wisconsin. The Court was first involved in redistricting in the 1890s, when they struck down two versions of state legislative maps and set standards for equal representation and district boundaries which the Legislature largely adhered to until the guidance was superseded by federal guidance in the 20th century. The Court next played an important role in the 1950s redistricting, when

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2058-401: The restoration of felon voting rights . The Brennan Center represented plaintiffs Margarita López Torres, other unsuccessful judicial candidates, and Common Cause , in a lawsuit that challenged the way New York state trial judge candidates gain access to the ballot. They prevailed in the U.S. District Court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit . In 2007, attorneys from

2107-532: The spring election, being the first Tuesday in April. If there are more than two candidates, a spring primary is held on the third Tuesday in February. Conservative Justice Michael Gableman did not seek re-election in 2018. Two county judges, Rebecca Dallet and Michael Screnock, ran for the open seat. A third candidate, Tim Burns, did not make it to the general election in the February 20 primary. The progressive Dallet

2156-419: The state court lacked many of the laws, procedures, and precedents of the federal courts which had settled redistricting cases for the previous four decades. In their absence, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struggled with the case, which was further exacerbated by a significant partisan split between the court's three conservatives and three liberals. Going into the 2022 case, Wisconsin's legislative map had among

2205-453: The top White House policy aide on campaign finance reform, he drafted the Clinton administration's public financing proposal. From 1995 to 1999, he was Director of Speechwriting, serving as Assistant to the President , and was responsible for writing or editing nearly 2,000 speeches, including four State of the Union and two Inaugural Addresses. Prior to his government service, Waldman was

2254-520: The worst partisan biases in the country. At the outset of the case, the court's three conservatives, along with the swing vote Hagedorn, established a novel legal concept that all parties should pursue the "least changes" to the existing map necessary to bring it into compliance with the applicable laws. The Republican legislature and the Democratic governor each submitted map proposals. The court quickly found that Evers' proposal actually best adhered to

2303-412: Was charged by a special prosecutor. Ethics charges brought against Prosser based on Bradley's allegations were never adjudicated due to the lack of a quorum on the Court after recusals. Although elections to the Wisconsin Supreme Court are nonpartisan, campaigns for the seats sometimes generate partisan fervor. As a result, elections have become increasingly expensive; growing from $ 4.3 million spent in

2352-491: Was elected in the April 3 general election. Incumbent progressive Justice Shirley Abrahamson , who had served on the court for 42 years, did not seek re-election in 2019. Conservative Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn was elected to succeed her in the April 2 general election over fellow Appeals Court Judge Lisa Neubauer and took her seat on the court on August 1, 2019. On April 7, 2020, progressive Jill Karofsky defeated conservative incumbent Daniel Kelly as Justice of

2401-797: Was then utilized for the 2022 elections. On December 22, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission , holding that Wisconsin's state legislative districts violated the Constitution of Wisconsin . Justice Jill Karofsky , writing for an ideologically-split 4-3 majority enjoined the Wisconsin Elections Commission from using the maps for the 2024 Wisconsin elections . Justices are elected in nonpartisan elections for ten-year terms. Only one justice may be elected in any year. Justices are elected in

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