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Daily Bread for 2.7.25: Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules Elections Administrator Can Remain in Post

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:02 and sunset is 5:16, for 10 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 74.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, The Beatles land in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport.


This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s Administrator, Meagan Wolfe, can remain in her post. The ruling was probable based on a prior court decision (under a different court majority) from 2022, as Scott Bauer reports:

A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that the swing state’s nonpartisan top elections official, who has been targeted for removal by Republican lawmakers over the 2020 presidential election, can remain in her post despite not being reappointed and confirmed by the state Senate.

Republicans who control the state Senate tried to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe in 2023, leading the commission to sue in an effort to keep Wolfe on the job.

The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling in Wolfe’s favor. The 7-0 ruling means that Wolfe can remain in her position and not face a confirmation vote by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The court said that no vacancy exists and, because of that, the elections commission “does not have a duty to appoint a new administrator to replace Wolfe simply because her term has ended.”

….

The court relied on the precedent set in its 2022 ruling that allowed Republican-appointee Fred Prehn to remain on the state Natural Resources Board after his term had ended. That ruling came when the court was controlled by conservatives. The court now has a 4-3 liberal majority.

See Scott Bauer, Wisconsin Supreme Court says swing state’s embattled elections chief can remain in post, Associated Press, February 7, 2025.

I felt that Prehn should have resigned at the end of his term (and been removed for failing to resign), but the Prehn ruling in 2022 made today’s decision as certain as a legal outcome could be.


‘Marsquakes’ travel deeper than expected, says new research:

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