A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice came right out and said it Saturday when she blasted Donald Trump’s attorney over a lawsuit challenging state election results that “smacks of racism.”
Liberal Justice Jill Karofsky also slammed the legal action as “not normal,” and as an assault on a “legitimate election” that has failed to produce a single case of fraud.
“What you want is for us to overturn this election so that your king can stay in power,” said Karofsky. “That is so un-American.”
Karofsky attacked lawyer James Troupis in a virtual hearing on a case filed by the lame-duck president and Vice President Mike Pence seeking to jettison all absentee ballots in two counties — Dane and Milwaukee — that voted for Joe Biden.
The counties are the “most urban, nonwhite, largest counties” in the state that “voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden,” Karofsky’s colleague Justice Rebecca Dallet said.
Karofsky said to Troupis that the lawsuit has singled out two counties of 72 in the state, “targeted because of their diverse populations, because they’re urban, I presume, because they vote Democratic. This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smacks of racism.”
She added: “I do not know how you can come before this court and possibly ask us for a remedy that is unheard of ... to say to 227,000 of our fellow Wisconsinites: ‘Your vote doesn’t matter.’”
And she wasn’t finished.
“This not normal,” Karofsky continued. “It is not normal for us to be sitting here 48 hours before the Electoral College sits. It is not normal for only two out of 72 counties to be at risk of losing their voice in this election.”
This case is “not about election fraud,” the judge added. “It is not about anyone in this state doing anything wrong. This case is about not just seeding — but watering and nurturing — doubt about a legitimate election.”
Karofsky asked Troupis to provide a single case of fraud in the Wisconsin election, which the lawyer was unable to do. He only said that the votes were cast in an “illegal form,” referring to absentee ballots. He admitted the ballots were used statewide, and not just in the two challenged counties.
Karofsky pointed out that the absentee ballot forms were exactly the same as they were in 2016 when Trump won the state, and he did not object to the ballots then.
There was no decision at the end of the 90-minute hearing, though it appeared highly unlikely the court would find in Trump’s favor.
The two justices have voted with the majority of the court in rejecting three postelection suits in the state on Trump’s behalf. Even conservative judges have been taken aback by the actions.
In a ruling earlier this month, Justice Brian Hagedorn said that one of the suits calling for the “court-ordered disenfranchisement of every Wisconsin voter” without credible evidence “would appear to be unprecedented in American history.”
Trump’s battle against his election loss suffered a devastating blow Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court jettisoned a suit by Texas, which was backed by 17 other red states (and 126 Republican members of the House), to toss ballots by four battleground states that voted for Biden. Texas lacks standing to challenge votes in other states, the top court said in a brief, unsigned order.
Trump also lost a federal case in Wisconsin Saturday. U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, a Trump appointee, dismissed the suit asking the court to order the Republican-controlled Legislature to name Trump the winner over Biden. The judge said Trump’s arguments “fail as a matter of law and fact.”
Trump has vowed to fight on. But time’s running out. The Electoral College meets Monday to cast ballots that will reflect the will of American voters.
The entire Wisconsin State Supreme Court hearing can be seen on WisEye video here.