The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has rejected a lawsuit demanding information about people deemed incompetent to vote.
The Wisconsin Voter Alliance wants access to data on those voters to ensure the state's registration list is accurate. The group is suing Walworth County and a dozen other counties throughout the state.
The Supreme Court did not reach the merits of the case, which was rejected on procedural grounds, raising the chance it could return.
Wisconsin's top court rejected WVA's case on technical grounds, finding a lower appeals court wrongly leapfrogged the case. One appeals court based in the state's liberal capital, Madison, rejected the lawsuit, while another, in Waukesha, overturned the Madison court and ruled in favor.
When an appeals court disagrees with a previous appeals court ruling, it has "two options," neither of which were taken here, the Supreme Court said.
"It may certify the appeal to this court and explain why it believes the prior opinion is wrong. Or it may decide the appeal, adhering to the prior
opinion, and explain why it believes the prior opinion is wrong," liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz wrote.
The Supreme Court must reject the Waukesha court's ruling, otherwise "litigants would feel encouraged to litigate issues ‘multiple times in the four districts.’”
“Why not?” Protasiewicz wrote. “Like the Alliance, if they lose in one district they might win in another.”
The court's opinion was joined by conservative Brian Hagedorn. The court's other two conservatives, Rebecca Bradley and Annette Ziegler, dissented. They said the court should intervene and "resolve weighty matters of privacy, open access to public information and election integrity.”
"Although both parties urged the court to resolve the substantive issue, the majority dodges it and chooses to scold the court of appeals instead," they said.
The Wisconsin Voter Alliance is fighting for guardianship records in order to cross reference the information with the database maintained by state election officials.
"In the 2022 election our data revealed approximately 16,000 adjudicated incompetent people who had lost voting privileges actually voted," the organization's website says.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court flipped to the left in 2023 after an expensive and contentious election. The court has continued to draw headlines over heated internal disputes between the new liberal majority and the conservatives.
The court overturned a ban on ballot drop boxes ahead of the 2024 election. President Trump won Wisconsin, a swing state, in November by about 29,000 votes.
