Image via joedonaldforjustice.com
In the three-way primary for a 10-year term on the state Supreme Court, the Shepherd is endorsing both Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Joe Donald and District 4 Appeals Court Presiding Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg. Although voters can cast a ballot for only one candidate in the Feb. 16 primary, both Donald and Kloppenburg are highly qualified, principled jurists who would help to restore the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s tarnished reputation to its previous high regard.
This race is essential to Wisconsin’s future. The court lost an independent, thoughtful justice when Patrick Crooks died in his chambers in September 2015. Initially, Crooks was thought to be conservative, but he approached each case with an open mind and in time he became a swing vote, sometimes siding with the conservative majority, sometimes with the liberals. It’s important that the next elected justice has Crooks’ integrity, intelligence and independence.
We believe that both Joe Donald and JoAnne Kloppenburg would be worthy successors to Justice Patrick Crooks.
Judge Joe Donald is a 20-year veteran of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, where he’s presided over more than 350 jury trials. He helped to launch the county’s drug court, which keeps addicts out of jail as long as they get treatment and stay clean. The drug court has proved that it’s a far more effective way to deal with nonviolent offenders and a public health issue that cuts across every socioeconomic group. Donald was appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1996 but has won re-election four times without an opponent. If elected, Donald would be the only African American and the only Milwaukeean on the court, providing a welcome urban perspective on the issues facing the state at large. To learn more about Judge Joe Donald, go to joedonaldforjustice.com.
Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg is a former assistant attorney general who’s now serving as an Appeals Court judge, but she is perhaps best known to Wisconsinites for her very close, high-profile race against Justice David Prosser in 2011, which was decided after a recount. We thought that Kloppenburg was a strong candidate then and she’s even stronger after winning a seat on the Appeals Court in 2012. As an Appeals Court judge, Kloppenburg is carefully attuned to the workings of the Supreme Court and she also has decades of invaluable experience in the attorney general’s office. We think Kloppenburg would be fair, impartial and offer carefully reasoned opinions on the critical issues facing Wisconsin. Kloppenburg would help to usher the state Supreme Court into a more ethical and promising era. To learn more about JoAnne Kloppenburg, go to kloppenburgforjustice.com.
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In contrast, the candidate who Donald and Kloppenburg are campaigning against, interim Justice Rebecca Bradley, might be one of the most unethical jurists ever to sit on the state Supreme Court. Bradley’s very brief, undistinguished judicial career is almost totally the result of her benefactor, Gov. Scott Walker, who appointed her to a jaw-dropping three judicial positions in three years, circuit court, then state Appeals Court and her current one on the state Supreme Court, filling out the remainder of the late Patrick Crooks’ term through July.
Bradley spent most of her career in private practice and as a corporate attorney, although she holds a leadership position with the Federalist Society, an ultra-conservative legal organization, and also wrote an op-ed in 2006 advocating for a conscience clause for pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control. Bradley argued that contraceptives can cause abortions, a fringe opinion held by some very conservative members of the religious right.
Walker appointed Bradley in December 2012 to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court and she successfully ran for election in 2013. Then Walker appointed her to the Appeals Court in May 2015. Just months later, after Crooks’ death, Bradley put herself forward for consideration to fill out the remaining months of his term. Both Donald and Kloppenburg refused to be considered, saying that a declared candidate for the spring 2016 election shouldn’t be appointed to the position. Both Walker and Bradley showed terrible judgment and very poor ethics by using the appointment to fill out Crooks’ term as Bradley’s launchpad to the Supreme Court.
While they are rivals on the campaign trail, Bradley and Donald have a connection. According to reporting by Wispolitics, Donald endorsed Bradley in her 2013 campaign, presided over her investiture as a circuit court judge and provided a reference for her 2015 Court of Appeals application. However, Donald gave another candidate a higher rating for the spot on the Appeals Court.
Although Walker appointed Bradley three times to the bench, Bradley did stand for election once, for a full term on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2013. She won, perhaps because she got heavy financial backing from Wisconsin Club for Growth. The Wisconsin Club for Growth, as you may remember, is one of the right-wing special interest groups implicated in the John Doe investigation. The conservative majority on the state Supreme Court shut down the John Doe investigation last year, even though the four conservative justices benefitted from campaign spending by the groups and should have recused themselves from the case.
But that’s not all. One Wisconsin Now reported that the right-wing dark-money group Wisconsin Alliance for Reform has bought nearly $900,000 of pro-Bradley ads before the Feb. 16 primary.
In addition, Bradley herself is aligning with Republicans to boost her current campaign. Not only is that partisan link highly unusual in a campaign for a nonpartisan position, but it telegraphs how Bradley would rule on the bench. If she’s beholden to Walker, the Republican Party, Wisconsin Club for Growth and dark money special interest groups running almost a million dollars’ worth of ads on her behalf, how on earth is she going to rule against them in court? She inevitably will decide in favor of her right-wing benefactors and further sink the reputation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Bradley needs to leave the bench as soon as possible.
Fortunately, Wisconsin voters have a better alternative. Vote for Judge Joe Donald or Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
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