Plus, Biden surpasses recent presidential pace for judicial appointments and Montana state senators reject bill to shrink state supreme court size
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Record Spending and Turnout in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election

On February 20, four candidates competed in a nonpartisan primary for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a progressive, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, a conservative, won the most votes and will advance to the nonpartisan general election on April 4.

Almost 21 percent

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of Wisconsin’s voting-age population participated in last week’s election, setting a record for the highest turnout in a Wisconsin state supreme court primary. This was a 36 percent increase from 2020, when the state supreme court primary election coincided with the Democratic presidential primary.

Wisconsin’s race is also poised to break records for spending in state supreme court elections. The most expensive race for a single state supreme court seat was in Illinois in 2004, with $15.2 million

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in spending. According to Brennan Center analysis

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, over $15.3 million has already been spent on television and radio ads for the Wisconsin election, both leading up to and after the primary.

The April general election will determine who joins the narrowly divided seven-member high court, which will likely hear challenges

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to the state’s abortion ban and the boundaries of legislative districts.



Biden Outpaces Predecessors on Judicial Appointments



As of March 2, the Senate has confirmed 110 of Biden's federal judicial nominees, surpassing

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the pace of confirmations for recent presidents. After the same amount of time in office, President Trump had 86 nominees confirmed, President Obama had 69 nominees confirmed, and President Bush had 103 nominees confirmed. There are 83 current

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vacancies in the federal judiciary.

To help Biden continue to fill vacancies at this pace, some Democrats have called for the elimination of the traditional “blue slips” process for district court nominees. During the Trump administration, Republicans advanced

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17 appellate court nominees without their home state senators’ approval in the form of a blue slip. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has called

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blue slips “an archaic holdover from a different era.”

Since taking office, Biden has focused on using his nominations to increase the diversity of the federal bench. Of the president’s nominees confirmed

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by the Senate so far, 74 percent are women and 69 percent are people of color. According to a statement

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from the White House, Biden has also “appointed more federal circuit judges with experience as public defenders than all prior presidents combined.”



Montana Legislators Reject Bills to Alter State Judiciary, Including Bill to Shrink Court



Last week, Montana state senators voted 26–24 to reject Senate Bill 311

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, which would have reduced the size of the state’s supreme court from seven justices to five. Ten Republicans voted

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with all Democrats to reject the bill.

In addition, the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee voted

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last Wednesday to table two bills that would have changed the judicial selection process in the state. Currently, judges are chosen through nonpartisan elections, and interim vacancies are filled via gubernatorial appointment. Senate Bill 372

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would have asked voters to give the legislature the power to appoint judges, and Senate Bill 431

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would have created an advisory committee, composed of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to recommend candidates to the governor to fill judicial vacancies.

This is not the first time that Republican lawmakers have attempted to change the judicial process in Montana. In 2021, the legislature passed a law

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eliminating the state’s judicial nominating commission. That same year, the legislature referred a measure

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to the November 2022 ballot that would have required high court justices to be elected by district, as opposed to statewide. However, the state supreme court blocked

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it from appearing on the ballot.











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