Ruthie Hauge/The Capital Times via AP, Pool
- A Wisconsin Supreme Court judge says the public must be made aware of harassment faced by officials.
- Jill Karofsky told WaPo that "we're going to lose this battle" for democracy if the threats aren't discussed.
- In recent years, justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court have faced threats over their rulings.
In recent years, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been hit with a series of threats, part of a harassment campaign against public officials and institutions that has become increasingly common across the country.
For Justice Jill Karofsky, the threats must be taken seriously.
Karofsky, who has served on the Wisconsin court since her election in 2020, told The Washington Post that officials must be vocal in informing the public about the threats or they'll "lose" the fight for democracy.
"We are at a moment of time where our democracy literally is on the line, and we have to figure out if we are just going to turn it over to a bunch of insurrectionists who think it is perfectly okay to use violence and intimidation to get the rulings that they want in a courtroom," Karofsky told the newspaper.
"Or are we going to have a democracy where people follow the rule of law?" she continued. "[I]f I don't stand up and if other people don't stand up, and we don't talk about this, we're going to lose this battle."
After the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020 ruled 4-3 to uphold now-President Joe Biden's victory in the state over then-President Donald Trump in that year's contentious election, the judicial body was met with threats, with some being antisemitic in nature.
The court, which in 2023 flipped from having a conservative majority to one with a liberal majority, last month ordered that the Republican-drawn legislative maps be tossed and redrawn.
Wisconsin is one of the most politically-competitive states in the country, with both Democrats and Republicans having served as governors and senators over the past two decades. But for more than a decade, the legislature has been firmly in GOP hands, due in part to heavily gerrymandered maps that for years have drawn Democratic scorn. The result: a high degree of political polarization.
Karofsky, who's part of the liberal bloc on the court, told The Post she thinks the threats are being used to pressure the justices regarding their rulings.
"I think mostly radical people on the right … are trying to exert influence on the judiciary in an anti-democratic fashion," she told the newspaper. "It is through intimidation. It is through threats. It is through violence."
And Karofsky also expressed that she's "really worried" that the threats could lead to a tragic result.
"I believe people when they say that they want to hurt us or kill us," she told the newspaper. "I don't think they're idle threats."