Conservative Group Seeks To Block Obama ‘Cronies’ From State Supreme Courts

A conservative group is taking action to prevent what it sees as Barack Obama-supported “cronies” from gaining influence over state Supreme Courts.

The Republican State Leadership Committee PAC is committed to backing conservative judges in six states this fall, with significant financial investments planned to achieve this goal.

The initiative is particularly crucial, given that former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has been working to influence state high courts in red states to redraw congressional districts, potentially favoring Democratic candidates.

“As state elections heat up nationwide, the RSLC’s Judicial Fairness Initiative (JFI) has unveiled its target races for 2024. The JFI is prepared to make a seven-figure investment to ensure that conservative judges continue to have a presence on the courts, preventing liberals from using majorities to advance their radical agendas from the bench, including gerrymandering state legislature and U.S. Congress maps to their advantage,” the organization stated in a press release.

The group plans to support conservative candidates in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

“Redistricting battles are no longer a decade-long fight; they are now an annual struggle. That's why it's imperative that we elect more constitutional conservatives across the country this year to counteract liberals, who are backed by millions in dark money, from overturning conservative-led benches,” RSLC President Dee Duncan remarked. “JFI remains dedicated to electing conservative judges who will work to maintain impartial justice and prevent Eric Holder and Barack Obama’s chosen allies from shifting the balance of power in these pivotal judicial battleground states in 2024.”

State Supreme Courts have played a critical role, especially in states like Wisconsin, where rulings could impact the 2024 election and beyond.

In a 4-3 decision in June, the Wisconsin Supreme Court allowed ballot drop boxes in the 2024 election, a move some have criticized as a stretch of legal interpretation. The court’s composition has shifted since the 2020 election, when it leaned conservative and struck down the use of ballot boxes.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley acknowledged that while the state Constitution does not explicitly permit drop boxes, it does allow voters to submit ballots to the County Clerk, who may then choose to utilize drop boxes, as reported by Just The News.

“By specifying that an absentee ballot be returned not to the ‘municipal clerk’s office,’ but rather ‘to the municipal clerk,’ the Legislature indicated that the ballot does not need to be delivered to a specific location but rather to a person,” Justice Bradley, who authored the decision, explained. “The next question is whether delivery to a drop box qualifies as delivery ‘to the municipal clerk.’”

“A drop box is managed, maintained, secured, and emptied by the municipal clerk. This holds true even if the drop box is located somewhere other than the municipal clerk’s office. The statute doesn’t require ballots to be returned to a specific location, only that they are delivered to a place designated by the municipal clerk,” the Justice clarified.

Justice Rebecca Bradley, in her dissent, criticized the majority’s decision.

“The majority has once again abandoned the rule of law in pursuit of its political agenda,” Justice Bradley stated. “This term began with the majority discarding the legislative maps approved by this court solely to facilitate ‘the redistribution of political power in the Wisconsin Legislature.’ It concludes by relaxing the Legislature’s rules on absentee voting, potentially influencing future elections.”

“To arrive at this decision, the majority distorts the court’s ruling in Teigen, replaces the law’s only reasonable interpretation with an unlikely one, and disregards the principle of stare decisis,” she said.

However, the majority opinion argued that clerks are not obligated to use drop boxes, only that they have the option.

“Our ruling today does not mandate that any municipal clerks use drop boxes,” the majority opinion stated. “It simply recognizes what has always been true: clerks may legally use secure drop boxes at their discretion.”