As Wisconsin voted to nudge Sanders and Cruz ever so slightly closer to the delegate counts they would need to become presidential nominees, they also cast ballots in a much more decisive election. Rebecca Bradley, a conservative jurist that Gov. Scott Walker (R) temporarily appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to fill a vacancy opened up by the death of her predecessor, won election to that same court. She now gains a much longer term on a court frequently mired in the partisan politics of the state. Democrats hoped to topple Bradley, especially after a raft of toxic columns the future jurist published as an undergraduate came to light last month. In at least one of those columns, Bradley expressed views about homosexuality that border on genocidal. “The homosexuals and drug addicts who do essentially kill themselves and others through their own behavior deservedly receive none of my sympathy,” Bradley wrote in 1992. In another column, she claimed that AIDS research received too much funding relative to other ailments such as cancer. “How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments.”…. “Heterosexual sex is very healthy in a loving martial relationship,” according to the younger Bradley. “Homosexual sex, however, kills.”
It would seem a not at all unreasonable expectation that jurists who sit on Supreme Courts- whether state or federal- value the rule of law over narrow ideological, theological, and/or moral belief…especially their own. Judges who place their beliefs over the rule of law corrupt the value and utility of the law and have no business being trusted with interpreting legal matters coming before them.
Then again, it’s only “judicial activism” when Liberals rule in ways Conservatives don’t like. When Conservative justices engage in social, religious, or moral engineering, it’s merely “the benevolent and measured exercise of wise jurisprudence.”
I’m less concerned with what Rebecca Bradley may have written in 1992 than I am with the fact that her views seem not to have moderated one bit…or that, more importantly, she seems willing to filter her interpretation of the law through her narrow moral/religious/ideological framework. Equally concerning is the people of Wisconsin are willing to install an ideologue like Bradley on the Badger State’s Supreme Court.
[Insert quote about “getting exactly the quality of leadership you deserve” here.]
Ultimately, it’s very likely that Bradley’s election may prove to be of far greater import than the victories achieved by Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz in Wisconsin’s Presidential primary. The decisions Bradley will help to shape will impact Wisconsin for years, perhaps generations. Gov. Scott Walker may not be in office for much longer, but the scorched earth legacy he will bequeath to Wisconsin is one of truly epic ineptitude, incompetence, and demonization of the poor, minorities, and unions. Oh…and he’s helped to make it far more difficult for non-White Wisconsinites (and college students) to vote.
Because government can’t work properly when people vote “inappropriately.”
Rebecca Bradley is but one example of the damage Gov. Walker has done and will continue to do even once he leaves office. She’ll help to ensure his policies will continue to be inflicted upon Wisconsin for years to come. The worst part is that Wisconsin voters have only themselves to blame for the Randian Tea Party “paradise” Gov. Walker will leave behind.
Congratulations, Wisconsin; you have only yourselves to blame for the Walker years of incompetence, mismanagement, and disdain of the middle class. You’ve voted against your own best interests not one, not twice, but three times. Who would have believed your standards were so abysmally low…or that you were so willing to see your state turned into the personal property and playground of wealthy White Conservative elites? I wonder how Wisconsinites will feel once they realize the Badger State is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries?
