The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign started the Judicial Independence Project in 2009.
Judicial Independence Project
About
The aim of the Judicial Independence Project was the promotion of fair and impartial courts in Wisconsin through research, education, alliance building and advocacy—with a primary focus on building awareness of growing special interest influence over state Supreme Court elections and how interest groups were operating outside current state disclosure laws and campaign finance limitations as they sought and achieved control over Wisconsin's highest court.
The culmination of the initiative was the passage in late 2009 of the Impartial Justice Act by a Democratic legislature and governor. Only one Supreme Court Justice election was ever held utlizing the new public financing program. The 2011 contest for incumbent Justice David Prosser's seat attracted four candidates, three of whom qualified for the new public financing grant. While the law was designed to supply candidates with extra funds if they faced attacks from outside spending groups in the form of issue ads or independent expenditures, that feature of the law could not be implemented in the 2011 election because new rules requiring disclosure of interest group election spending were tied up in court, and therefore, were not in effect. Without disclosure of the spending, the matching funds that would be triggered under the Impartial Justice Act could not be provided to candidates.
Governor Scott Walker and the Republican controlled legislature repealed the law and its funding source in the 2011-2013 state budget, and made matters worse with passage of 2015 Wisconsin Act 117 which increased campaign contribution limits and weakened campaign finance disclosure rules.
Content of the project’s impartialjustice.org website now resides here.