Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Wisconsin Republicans plan to unveil a proposal soon to legalize medical marijuana in the state and could vote on it sometime in 2024, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said. He also said abortion limits should go to a public referendum, and it’s “super unlikely” Republicans would impeach a Supreme Court justice over how she votes on a redistricting lawsuit.
Republicans have been working behind closed doors for years on a medical marijuana bill. Along the way, they have rejected calls from Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats to legalize all uses of marijuana, including medical and recreational.
Vos, in an interview Wednesday, said the proposal will be limited and modeled after the medical marijuana law that had been in place in neighboring Minnesota before it moved to full legalization.
“It is not going to be widespread,” he said. “We are not going to have dispensaries on every corner in every city.”
He said Assembly Republicans are on board in concept, but no one has seen the actual proposal yet. He expected to unveil it in January. Vos had said in April that he hoped to have the bill by the fall of 2023, but he said it took more time to find consensus.
“In concept most people are there, but I don’t want to guarantee anything until we have a wider discussion,” he said. “I feel pretty good that we’re in a place where I think it can get through our chamber.”
If passed by both the Senate and Assembly, it would have to be signed by Evers before taking effect.
Senate Republicans have been less open to pot legalization than those in the Assembly. But in January, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said a bill to create a medical marijuana program could pass this legislative session — as long as regulations are put forward to ensure it’s for those in serious pain.
Vos has long backed some form of medical marijuana program, but no bill has ever received a vote in either the GOP-controlled Assembly or Senate.
Wisconsin remains an outlier nationally, with 38 states legalizing medical marijuana and 24 legalizing recreational marijuana. The push for legalization in Wisconsin has gained momentum, as its neighbors have loosened laws.
Marquette University Law School polls have shown large majority support among Wisconsin residents for legalizing marijuana use for years.
Vos: Voters should decide on abortion limits
Vos wants to let voters decide whether to shrink the window of time in which women can get abortions.
Current state law bans abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, but Vos said Wednesday that he hopes to put a proposal on some future ballot that would lower the limit to somewhere between the 12th and 15th week.
“It’s probably the only way for us to put this issue to rest,” he told The Associated Press. “It has the idea of saying we’re letting the people decide.”
The state of abortion laws in Wisconsin was thrown into confusion in June 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion throughout the country. The 2022 ruling reactivated an 1849 state law that conservatives interpreted as banning abortion, and abortion providers halted their operations for fear of prosecution. Planned Parenthood clinics in Madison and Milwaukee only resumed offering abortions in September after Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled that the 173-year-old abortion ban outlaws killing fetuses but does not ban abortions.
Schlipper reaffirmed that decision in a final ruling earlier this month, and a Republican prosecutor appealed the ruling on Wednesday. The case is likely to end up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which recently flipped to liberal control.
Vos argued Wednesday that passing a new abortion law would put to rest the uncertainty of waiting for judges to interpret outdated laws.
However, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers opposed the plan in a statement issued Thursday.
“I’ll veto any bill that makes reproductive health care any less accessible for Wisconsinites than it is right now,” he said.
Marquette University Law School polls conducted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade have shown that a majority of Wisconsin residents opposed that ruling and support legalized abortion.
For a new abortion law to be put before voters, the proposal would first have to be passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. It could then be placed on the ballot in a statewide election as a binding referendum. Wisconsin law does not allow voters to place questions on the ballot, and Republicans who control the Legislature have previously rejected Evers’ calls to create a way for voters to repeal the 1849 abortion ban.
However, Evers is unlikely to go along with Vos’ proposal. The governor has vowed to veto any abortion legislation that would create stricter laws than existed under Roe, which allowed states to regulate abortion after the point of fetal viability and under certain circumstances before that point, which is typically considered to be 23-24 weeks along.
Vos isn’t the first Wisconsin Republican to call for a ballot question on abortion laws. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has repeatedly pushed for a referendum to determine when voters believe abortion should be banned, saying he thinks most people would not support allowing the procedure after the 12th week of pregnancy.
“I continue to believe that having ‘we the people’ decide the profound moral issue of abortion is the only way to find a reasonable consensus that most people will accept,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday. “One of the benefits of a one-time, single-issue referendum would be the education and discussion that would occur leading up to it. Unfortunately, with an active court case and resistance in the Legislature, a referendum in 2024 is highly unlikely.”
Impeachment ‘super unlikely’
Vos had previously threatened possible impeachment of a new liberal state Supreme Court justice over her views on redistricting, but now says such a move is “super unlikely.”
Vos originally threatened to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz if she did not recuse herself from the redistricting challenge, which is backed by Democrats seeking to throw out Republican-drawn electoral maps. After Protasiewicz refused to step down from the case, Vos raised the possibility of impeachment based on how she rules.
Wisconsin’s Assembly districts rank among the most gerrymandered nationally, with Republicans routinely winning far more seats than would be expected based on their average share of the vote, according to an Associated Press analysis.
When asked in an interview Wednesday if he would move to impeach Protasiewicz if she orders new maps to be drawn, Vos said, “I think it’s very unlikely.”
“It’s one of the tools that we have in our toolbox that we could use at any time,” Vos said of impeachment. “Is it going to be used? I think it’s super unlikely.”
However, Vos refused to rule it out.
“We don’t know what could happen, right?” he said. “There could be a scandal where something occurs. I don’t know.”
The Wisconsin Constitution reserves impeachment for “corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors.” The constitution lays out a separate method, known as address, for judicial misconduct, but the process requires a two-thirds majority vote of the Assembly, which Republicans don’t have.
Vos first floated the possibility of impeachment in August after Protasiewicz called the Republican-drawn legislative boundary maps “rigged” and “unfair” during her campaign. Protasiewicz, in her decision not to recuse herself from the case, said that while stating her opinion about the maps, she never made a promise or pledge about how she would rule.
Impeachment has drawn bipartisan opposition, and two former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, asked by Vos to investigate the possibility, told him in October it was not warranted. Vos refused to say what advice he got from a third retired justice whom he consulted.
If the Assembly were to impeach Protasiewicz, and the Senate convicted her, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would get to name her replacement. If she had been removed from office prior to Dec. 1, there would have been a special election.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the redistricting lawsuit in November and could issue a ruling any day.
The legislative electoral maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 cemented the party’s majorities, which now stand at 64-35 in the Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the Senate. The Wisconsin Supreme Court approved maps last year that were similar to the existing ones.
The lawsuit before the state Supreme Court asks that all 132 state lawmakers be up for election in 2024 in newly drawn districts.
Editor’s note: This story corrects details about Roe v. Wade and fetal viability. Roe v. Wade allowed abortion to be regulated in some cases before fetal viability, which was once 24-28 weeks but is considered now to be 23-24 weeks into a pregnancy.
