The new liberal majority of Wisconsin's supreme court is now attempting to "reduce the powers" of the court's conservative chief justice, the Associate Press reports. 

Per the outlet:

Liberals who gained majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week voted Friday to reduce powers of the conservative chief justice and make a series of other changes to how the court operates, moves that the chief justice derided as an overreach by “rogue justices.”

Background

This comes after the left, back in early April, managed to win a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz - formerly of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court - defeated conservative Judge Dan Kelly - a former state Supreme Court justice - in an election that was followed by the entire country.

Protasiewicz's victory has given liberals a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time in 15 years. They will keep this majority for the next two years.

But, apparently, they have no time to lose. The liberals are currently looking to capitalize on their newfound majority.

The changes

Among other things, the liberal justices are targeting Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler.

The Associate Press reports:

On Friday, liberal justices voted to make a wide array of changes to how the court operates, including reducing powers of the chief justice, making its administrative meetings open to the public, and forming a committee to study when justices should recuse themselves from cases.

Ziegler responded by accusing "four rogue members of the court" of meeting in a "secret, unscheduled, illegitimate closed meeting in an attempt to gut the Chief Justice’s constitutional authority as administrator of the court." Ziegler called the actions "illegitimate and unenforceable."

The liberal justices responded by calling Ziegler's comments "deeply inappropriate."

Looking forward

The significance of all of this cannot be understated. The simple fact is that the reason why this is all so contentious - and the reason why the race between Protasiewicz and Kelly received national attention - is that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is getting ready this term to hear a number of significant, hot-button cases.

According to the Associated Press, the Wisconsin Supreme Court may hear cases on redistricting, abortion, 2024 voting rules, school choice, veto power, and more.

This is why the court's liberal contingent is now trying to use its majority to put as many things in its favor as possible before the court hears these cases. They want to make sure that these issues get decided in their favor.

As for where "the law" is in all of this, the answer would appear to be "long gone."