Last week, Wisconsin lost a remarkable jurist when state Supreme Court N. Patrick Crooks died at the state Capitol. Crooks was a conservative when first elected but kept an open mind as he found that the issues were not black and white but much more complex. Over the years he moved to the center and was viewed as a fair, impartial jurist on the bench, displaying all of the best qualities in a Supreme Court justice. He was an independent swing vote during this highly polarized era of the court, siding with the conservative majority in some cases and the more liberal minority on others. We send our condolences to his family at this difficult time.
While Crooks’ friends and family mourn his loss, the work of the state Supreme Court goes on. The court is hearing cases that it’ll decide this spring, and Gov. Scott Walker has the opportunity to appoint Crooks’ successor, who will finish out his term through July 2016. To that end, we agree with the leaders of Common Cause in Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Wisconsin Voices, who sent a letter to Walker requesting that Walker appoint someone who is not running for Crooks’ seat in the spring election. The three declared candidates are Appeals Court Judge Rebecca Bradley, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joe Donald and Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg.
“The selection of a currently declared candidate to the Supreme Court at this time would certainly exacerbate the shrill partisan and mean-spirited tone for the upcoming election that has characterized so many state Supreme Court elections over the past decade,” the groups’ letter reads.
Republicans have been lining up behind Bradley, a leading local member of the uber-conservative Federalist Society who Walker appointed to circuit court and the appeals court. A Walker appointment to the state Supreme Court would give her an unfair advantage over her rivals in the spring election. We urge the governor to not think about politics for once and to do the right thing by appointing a jurist who has no desire to use that appointment to secure his or her position on the bench. That nonpartisan, nonpolitical appointment would be a fitting honor to Justice Crooks.
