Monday, December 23, 2019

Kelly's voter rolls' case recusal stirs up earlier voting rights memory

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly - - a Walker appointee who will be on the ballot next year - - has recused himself from hearing the appeal of a judge's recent order to delete 234,000 names from election rolls.

Image of Daniel Kelly

I remember that Kelly played a roll in a Federal redistricting case as an attorney for GOP gerrymandering legislators several years ago, as I noted at the time on this blog:
When the case went to trial last month, lawyers for the state argued that the redistricting plan was the state's domain, according to the AP on February 24th:
Daniel Kelly, an attorney who defended the maps, said they were prepared as they should have been - by lawmakers. He said the Legislature's decision should be respected, not interfered with by the courts
"Drafting them is the province of the Legislature. It's a political act," he said. "This is their judgment, and it is inappropriate for a small group of people to attempt to reverse a legitimate politic, you know what happened...." 
Well, you know what happened. The Federal court agreed to hear the case and issued a decision a few weeks later that slammed the secrecy with which the redistricting was handled and ordered that [two] districts be mapped to comply with the US Voting Rights Act.
To which the state responded Friday by saying to the three-judge panel - - hey, you folks can go ahead and do our job for us because our Legislature won't. 

1 comment:

Jake formerly of the LP said...

If that hack is stepping away from being part of this case, you know that the GOP's voting purge is TOXIC to Wisconsin voters.

Time to tie this and gerrymandeting around Kelly's Fed Society neck.