The Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge from Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul that sought to block Elon Musk from awarding two $1 million checks at his town hall event Sunday evening. The decision caps off a swift series of legal denials that ultimately cleared the way for Musk and his America PAC to proceed with the high-profile giveaway.
Kaul’s lawsuit, filed late last week, was a last-ditch effort to halt what he described as an “improper inducement” tied to a petition effort launched by Musk’s PAC. The petition in question urges voters to stand against so-called “activist judges,” and the checks were awarded to two individuals in recognition of their participation. Kaul argued the gesture had political overtones that could improperly influence Wisconsin’s upcoming judicial elections. But the courts saw no grounds to intervene.
NEWS: Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects hearing Attorney General Josh Kaul’s lawsuit seeking to block Elon Musk’s money giveaway just before event in Green Bay begins.
— Molly Beck (@MollyBeck) March 30, 2025
Waukesha County Judge W. Andrew Voigt declined to hear the emergency filing, prompting Kaul to appeal to the state’s Court of Appeals, which also denied the motion. By Sunday, Kaul had appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which similarly refused to take up the case before the event could take place.
Musk, speaking at the rally, made his intentions clear. “We just want judges to be judges, which is a reasonable thing to ask for,” he said, emphasizing the petition’s goal to restore judicial restraint. “We’re obviously seeing some crazy stuff in D.C. where it seems like any federal judge can stop any action by the President of the United States. This is insane. It’s got to stop.”
He then proceeded to hand out two $1 million checks live on stage, applauding the recipients for standing up against judicial activism. The move drew national media attention and reignited the conversation about judicial overreach and the boundaries of campaign influence.
BREAKING: Elon Musk has named two new $1 Million spokespeople for signing our Petition In Opposition To Activist Judges on stage at his Green Bay Town Hall:
Nicholas Jacobs and Ekaterina Diestler
SIGN: https://t.co/TMeyWUhbrH pic.twitter.com/l0G3D8Yh6C
— America (@america) March 31, 2025
Meanwhile, Musk’s legal team had also filed motions to disqualify two state Supreme Court justices—Rebecca Frank Dallet and Jill J. Karofsky—on the grounds that both had publicly supported liberal judicial candidate Susan Crawford, who has been critical of Musk. While the motions were denied, the request highlighted growing concerns about partisanship on the bench and the increasingly political nature of judicial races in Wisconsin.
At the heart of this legal and political whirlwind is the upcoming 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race between conservative Judge Brad Schimel and liberal Judge Susan Crawford. As Breitbart’s Katherine Hamilton reported, it is shaping up to be the most consequential state-level election of the year. Control of the court, and thus the ideological direction of key rulings, hangs in the balance.
Schimel, a former attorney general himself, has warned that since liberals gained control of the court, it has aggressively advanced a progressive agenda by overturning conservative-backed laws. “They’re just checking off this list of all these things on their wishlist,” Schimel told Breitbart News Saturday. “It’s not a court anymore. It’s a political weapon.”
