One of the conservatives running for Wisconsin Supreme Court this spring is once again calling out a liberal candidate for what she is saying on the campaign trail.
Milwaukee County judge Janet Protasiewicz said on Madison TV over the weekend that she is not hiding from her progressive politics.
“In regard to the progressive label, I embrace that when it comes to issues such as gerrymandering,” she said on WKOW’s Capital City Sunday. “When we talk about the maps, when we talk about marriage equality, when we talk about women’s rights, and women’s rights to choose.”
Conservative former Justice Dan Kelly, who is also running this spring, said Protasiewicz crossed a line.
“When a judicial candidate tells you her values, she’s telling you she will let her personal politics influence how she decides cases,” Kelly told The Center Square. “But politics are poison to the work of the court. And yet Judge Protasiewicz said she would bring her political ‘values’ to the Supreme Court if she were elected.”
This is not the first time that Kelly has criticized Protasiewicz or the other liberal judge running this spring, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Everett Mitchell. Kelly leveled the same politics-is-poison argument after Protasiewicz and Mitchell touted their progressive bona fides during a candidate’s forum earlier this month.
Judges are allowed to talk about their view of the court, and the balance between the judicial branch and the other branches of state government. They are not supposed to tell voters how they will rule on specific cases.
Kelly said Protasiewicz is essentially doing just that.
“Judge Protasiewicz admitted that she ’embraces’ the label of ‘progressive judge.’ The whole point of judicial progressivism is to incorporate one’s own politics into the work of the court. This is a declaration of independence from the Constitution, and it breaks faith with the people of Wisconsin who have asked their courts to do one thing, and one thing only: Decide cases based on the law as it is written, not as a judge might wish it to be.”
Voters will decide between Protasiewicz, Mitchell, Kelly, and one other conservative candidate, Jenifer Dorow, on February 21. The spring election is set for April 4.