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Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley has risen like a rocket through the state’s legal establishment. Just three years ago, Bradley was a corporate lawyer. Now, thanks to three appointments from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, she’s sitting on the state Supreme Court, temporarily filling the position left open by the death of Justice Patrick Crooks. Bradley is running for a full term in April; both Joe Donald and JoAnne Kloppenburg, two other candidates for the position, declined to be considered for the temporary appointment, arguing that no official candidate should do so and create an unfair advantage for the appointee.
We don’t know much about Bradley, but we do know that she was a leader of the local chapter of the ultraconservative Federalist Society and has many friends in high places, including Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. Now, thanks to an essay dug up by the Capital Times in Madison, we are reminded that Bradley inserted herself into a highly contentious debate on abortion and birth control, taking a very controversial position that no doubt endeared her to the religious right.
The Cap Times dug up a 2006 essay Bradley had written for MKE, the faux-alt-weekly run by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel roughly a decade ago. In the essay, Bradley, then a corporate lawyer, argued for legislation that would have established a conscience clause for pharmacists. This would allow pharmacists to deny filling prescriptions legitimately written by a physician for their patients. The target, of course, was birth control. “Pharmacists have been fired and disciplined for exercising the belief, which can be scientifically supported, that contraceptives may cause the death of a conceived, unborn child by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus,” Bradley wrote in MKE. Later, she writes, “The law certainly should protect pharmacists who choose not to be a party to the morally abhorrent termination of life.” At the end of the essay, she recommends visiting the websites of Pro-Life Wisconsin, the fringe anti-abortion group that doesn’t condone hormonal birth control, and Pharmacists for Life International for more information about “getting involved.”
Bradley’s camp wouldn’t comment about the essay, but it needs to be added to the long list of reasons why she should not win a 10-year term on the bench in April. In our view, she is very far outside the mainstream views of the vast majority of Wisconsin citizens. She also showed questionable judgment and ethical standards by seeking and then accepting her current appointment on the high court, thereby giving herself an unfair advantage over her opponents. Now, with the new revelations about her extreme position on birth control, we know that Rebecca Bradley absolutely does not have the judgment required in a respected Supreme Court justice. Do you really want a Supreme Court justice who doesn’t want you to have birth control?
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