[EL] Wisconsin judiciary

Fri Mar 13 12:16:18 PDT 2020

Are there any examples of Karofsky actually calling Justice Kelly
"corrupt?" What I believe she has said is that Kelly and other justices
consistently decline to recuse from cases involving their biggest election
supporters, and consistently side with the interests that spent millions
getting them elected to the bench, which contributes to the appearance of
corruption and undermines the public's confidence in the Wisconsin Supreme
Court.

The background is that Wisconsin has some of the weakest judicial recusal
rules
<https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/JudicialRecusal.pdf>
in the country when it comes to cases involving big donors and spenders.
These weak rules have become an issue this election cycle, but the problem
has been percolating
<https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-destruction-of-the-wisconsin-supreme-court>for
years
<https://wislawjournal.com/2015/09/02/closing-arguments-should-two-justices-have-recused-themselves-in-john-doe-case/>;
in 2017, for example, 54 retired judges petitioned
<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2017/01/11/former-judges-seek-rules-donations/96430238/>the
Wisconsin Supreme Court to amend the rules regarding justices hearing cases
involving their biggest campaign supporters, but the conservative
majority--including Justice Kelly and Justice Rebecca Bradley, who signed
yesterday's statement--refused to revisit the court's non-recusal rules
<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/20/wisconsin-supreme-court-weighs-recusal-rules-when-campaign-donors-litigants/100644698/>.
(Justice Bradley said this about the petition from the retired judges:
"Every judge and justice in Wisconsin should be highly offended by this
petition because it attacks their integrity.") See Campaign Legal Center's
comments on the petition here
<https://wicourts.gov/supreme/docs/1701commentsfischer.pdf>.

For further background, read this 2018 Wisconsin Lawyer article from me and
Nick Harken:
https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/WisconsinLawyer/Pages/Article.aspx?Volume=91&Issue=2&ArticleID=26152

On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 2:27 PM Smith, Bradley <BSmith at law.capital.edu>
wrote:

> Worse for the challenger, better for the court (which is not to say ideal
> or good), more accurate for everyone.
>
> *Bradley A. Smith*
>
> *Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault*
>
> *   Professor of Law*
>
> *Capital University Law School*
>
> *303 E. Broad St.*
>
> *Columbus, OH 43215*
>
> *614.236.6317*
>
> *http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
> <http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx>*
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Rick Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
> *Sent:* Friday, March 13, 2020 1:24 PM
> *To:* Smith, Bradley; Election Law Listserv
> *Subject:* Re: Wisconsin judiciary
>
> Do you think that makes it any better?
>
>
>
> *From: *"Smith, Bradley" <BSmith at law.capital.edu>
> *Date: *Friday, March 13, 2020 at 10:12 AM
> *To: *Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>, Election Law Listserv <
> law-election at uci.edu>
> *Subject: *Wisconsin judiciary
>
>
>
> Well, actually they criticized her for calling her opponent "corrupt" and
> suggesting that he was getting paid off by "right wing special interests."
>
>
>
> *Bradley A. Smith*
>
> *Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault*
>
> *   Professor of Law*
>
> *Capital University Law School*
>
> *303 E. Broad St.*
>
> *Columbus, OH 43215*
>
> *614.236.6317*
>
> *http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
> <http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx>*
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Law-election [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on
> behalf of Rick Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
> *Sent:* Friday, March 13, 2020 11:18 AM
> *To:* Election Law Listserv
> *Subject:* [EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/13/20
>
>    ** [ This email originated outside of Capital University ] **
>   Sitting Conservative Justices on Wisconsin Supreme Court Publicly
> Criticize Liberal Candidate for Court Who Is Running Against Conservative
> Colleague for Saying Justice “Sides with Right Wing Special Interests”
> <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2felectionlawblog.org%2f%3fp%3d109976&c=E,1,8WS-QuaT6fs2hmBewlZ_bxwXcgRHyLrOr01ZctM5Egj5etXyPdqTPFR3oRTq8tuQbAwuvg2DyBOixigIrP3dtvcqV2v5mBtVpBccSeWKEH1HgF0f&typo=1>
>
> Posted on March 13, 2020 7:59 am
> <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2felectionlawblog.org%2f%3fp%3d109976&c=E,1,-kmLjfSAjdajS2fKTu8wxhIBLfYIyMEXVYNFPRoZq4qYfGyRIJDAZ7p4lsBTED754w9uFH3fm0mI0WEsL4yl4K55y5ctZAPhFYKjE1Be3CUAaD4,&typo=1>
>  by *Rick Hasen*
> <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2felectionlawblog.org%2f%3fauthor%3d3&c=E,1,mc1uje9k-zzWb3CsmUOr3lNF0tDP01fiir6yRViguZG_TEQQmd-UJp4YTtaSfF6xJM9sOwUG9U81tdCJiL2tgmBLueAHLs5dVFgZf8dGboiVpPsv1w5Yzgs,&typo=1>
>
> I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this
> <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fmadison.com%2fwsj%2fnews%2flocal%2fgovt-and-politics%2fconservative-wisconsin-supreme-court-justices-lash-out-against-candidate-jill%2farticle_caa520aa-a9e6-50d0-8593-c01729a8f978.html&c=E,1,MkhvrOtVgtIW7aTjO7heRiG4zj_LVrarAor74zQ01r44uhIsFIuX3whqABE8-HN0mPAS9MDZ9LrL980Ybaa2k9Y7M4Xob-jlJxZigN69DcVI&typo=1>
> .
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D109976&title=Sitting%20Conservative%20Justices%20on%20Wisconsin%20Supreme%20Court%20Publicly%20Criticize%20Liberal%20Candidate%20for%20Court%20Who%20Is%20Running%20Against%20Conservative%20Colleague%20for%20Saying%20Justice%20%E2%80%9CSides%20with%20Right%20Wing%20Special%20Interests%E2%80%9D>
>
> Posted in judicial elections
> <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2felectionlawblog.org%2f%3fcat%3d19&c=E,1,Mdnu1634tt9rtEqbHu71wfT9kXRjuQ-1DN4GnczzBTF3NGpag8bQ0VkQ2xPfyhBdENVOvCQeC8xRHH2cztGTC2ZmFKPI-pgg8QiUYsJkXGS6eztBtA,,&typo=1>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> https://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20200313/96fb074a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2022 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20200313/96fb074a/attachment.png>