hagedorn hon
=<div>WI IS A SWING STATE 2016 RECALL QUASHED?</div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One thing Gableman, Wait and</span><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Chief Justice Ziegler all have in common is that they supported Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election results in Wisconsin. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Had a lone conservative on the court, Brian Hagedorn, not voted with the liberal minority, Trump’s challenge would have been upheld.</span></b>
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/how-lawless-maga-republicans-are-trying-to-overthrow-democracy/">https://www.alternet.org/how-lawless-maga-republicans-are-trying-to-overthrow-democracy/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 8 23 no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">these are not normal times. Still, as Will Bunch observed in a powerful column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, out of force of habit, laziness or just plain denial, a lot of journalists continue to treat the Republican presidential contest as if it were a regular political event instead of the lawless authoritarian movement it really is.</font></div><div>
</div><div>The Republican party has been hijacked by Donald Trump. His enablers here in Wisconsin are part of a destructive cabal that is undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law.</div><div>
</div><div><b>That’s the context around Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler’s denunciation of the “rogue lawlessness” of the new liberal court majority for daring to set procedural rules.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ziegler’s claim that the court’s 4-3 liberal majority has staged a “coup” and conducted an “illegal experiment” by choosing a new administrator of state courts and changing some procedural rules is demonstrably false. In a calm, clear email response grounded in reality and the Wisconsin Constitution, Justice Rebecca Dallet explains why Ziegler is wrong.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Wisconsin Constitution clearly states that a four-person quorum of justices constitutes a majority for the conduct of the court’s business, including setting internal operating procedures. The chief justice exercises “administrative authority pursuant to procedures adopted by the supreme court.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ziegler doesn’t have a leg to stand on.</span></div><div>
</div><div>From one angle, this looks like a tempest in a teapot. Dueling late-August memos about internal court procedures don’t generally rise to the level of headline news.</div><div>
</div><div><b>But the battle for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a right-wing minority that lost its power in the recent spring election is part of a bigger plot by MAGA Republicans to flout the will of the voters and entrench minority rule</b></div><div>
</div><div>Take this week’s seemingly unrelated AP story about the right-wing groups preparing to gut the federal government if they succeed in getting Trump reelected. Project 25, funded by the Heritage Foundation and fueled by former Trump administration officials, “is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term,” AP reports. The idea is to “gut the ‘administrative state’ from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.”</div><div>
</div><div>The Project 25 handbook includes a suggested purge of tens of thousands of federal employees, replacing civil service jobs with patronage positions, stopping the FBI from working to curb the spread of misinformation and stepped-up prosecution of anyone who helps provide abortion pills by mail. It’s scary stuff.</div><div>
</div><div>Anti-government rhetoric has been a Republican staple for decades. But the willingness to spread lies, destroy democratic institutions and subvert elections to hold onto power is something new.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has threatened to launch impeachment proceedings against Justice Janet Protasieiwicz </b>unless she recuses herself from a challenge to the Republicans’ <b>gerrymandered voting maps</b></span>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> By stating the truth during her campaign that the current maps are “rigged” to give Republicans a disproportionate legislative majority — an observable fact with which a federal court, a majority of Wisconsin voters and even Vos himself have agreed — Protasiewicz opens herself up to “corruption” charges if she doesn’t disqualify herself, Vos says.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The impeachment threat, like the caterwauling by the Chief Justice, is absurd. The judicial branch, as a coequal branch of government, has its own recusal rules. Those rules do not require justices to recuse themselves from cases because of remarks they made during a campaign</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If the Legislature intervenes and impeaches a justice who follows the rules, it violates the separation of powers among the branches of government. But the emboldened right-wing majority in the Assembly might give it a try anyway, as The Washington Post reports, in order to set up a process by which the Republicans can block a gerrymandering lawsuit that could diminish their power. The point would not be to convict Protasiewicz of anything, just to gum up the workings of the Court long enough to slow down a challenge to the gerrymandered map.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A successful impeachment vote in the Assembly would force a justice to stop hearing or weighing in on cases until the Senate holds a vote on removal from office. Given the Senate’s track record of delaying confirmation hearings for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ nominees, it’s easy to foresee the foot-dragging that would ensue, at least until the 2024 election is over.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Stop calling them ‘conservatives’</div><div>
</div><div>On the same day the dueling memos between the new Wisconsin Supreme Court majority and the power-grabbing right-wing minority came out, the Senate held a public hearing on whether or not Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe should be allowed to continue in her job. The hearing went forward against the advice of legislative attorneys and <b>Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, </b>who have held that the Senate does not have the power to remove Wolfe. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It featured <b>MAGA cult members Michael Gableman,</b> who was fired as head of the Legislature’s bumbling “investigation” of the 2020 election, and Racine County election conspiracy theorist Harry Wait, who is facing criminal charges for making fraudulent absentee ballot requests.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One thing Gableman, Wait and</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Chief Justice Ziegler all have in common is that they supported Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election results in Wisconsin. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Had a lone conservative on the court, Brian Hagedorn, not voted with the liberal minority, Trump’s challenge would have been upheld.</span></b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Ziegler joined team MAGA</b> — and very nearly made the Wisconsin Supreme Court the only forum in the nation to allow Trump’s spurious challenge to the election results to move forward.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Let’s stop calling these people “conservatives.” The Republican Party has devolved into a cult of personality, working to install a strongman in the White House who has been charged with 91 felonies and who could easily be convicted and sentenced before the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee. It’s a real possibility that Trump could deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination from prison.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Wisconsin is going to play a key role in the next election, and defending democracy and justice in this state is going to be critical to preventing our country’s slide authoritarianism.</b></div><div>
</div><div>To protect the elected majority on the state’s highest court, theoretically, Protasiewicz could seek an injunction against the Legislature and prevent them from impeaching her in violation of her free speech rights.</div><div>
</div><div>In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court held in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White that the First Amendment protects the rights of candidates for judicial election to announce their views on disputed legal and political issues. The opinion written by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia,</div><div>
</div><div>Time is of the essence, though. That lawsuit would have to be filed promptly to head off the Legislature’s impeachment delaying tactic.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Another possibility is that Protasiewicz, if impeached by the Assembly, could resign. Then Democratic Gov. Evers could appoint another justice to take her place</b>. Evers could choose someone like former Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor or progressive Judge Everett Mitchell. The new appointee would finish out Protasiewicz’s term, which runs until 2027. Protasiewicz could then run against MAGA Justice Rebecca Bradely in 2026. Given the outcome of recent Wisconsin Supreme Court races, it seems likely she’s win again.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Justice should file charges against Wisconsin’s fake electors – one of whom, Robert Spindell, is still serving on the state elections commission.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The only way to defeat the sheer chutzpah of the right-wing attack on democracy is by fighting back just as aggressively. Our future depends on it.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The organized takeover of Wisconsin courts</b></div><div><b>How big money has eroded a core democratic institution</b></div><div>Ruth Conniff</div><div>RUTH CONNIFF</div><div><b>JULY 29, 2021 </b></div><div> </div><div>
</div><div>It barely rated a mention in the news when, on June 28, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order relieving Court of Appeals Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer of her leadership duties. </div><div>
</div><div>Neubauer ran for the Supreme Court in 2019 with the support of Democrats and progressives, in an election won by a razor-thin margin by conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The bland-sounding order ending her tenure as chief judge made it seem as though, since Neubauer’s second term had expired, after six years of service, replacing her was a routine matter. The new chief judge, William Brash, will start on August 1, the Court announced.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">But, in an email objecting to Neubauer’s removal, Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Frank Dallet and Jill Karofsky pointed out that “never before has this court limited the number of terms that can be served as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Nuebauer’s predecessor served eight years as chief, and each of the two chief judges before him served nine years, the justices added in their email. They also objected to “the timing and lack of process employed by a majority of this court in the appointment process” and said they had not had an opportunity to weigh in.</div><div>
</div><div>“It sort of smells like retribution, doesn’t it?” says a source close to the Court.</div><div>
</div><div>For the general public, it wasn’t a very big story. Most people didn’t even know there is such a thing as an appeals court chief judge. It’s not a particularly powerful position; the chief mainly deals with handling the court’s budget and other administrative matters.</div><div>
</div><div>It's not how we want democratic institutions to work. It’s a little Banana Republic-y.</div><div>
</div><div>– Attorney Jeffrey Mandell</div><div>
</div><div><b>But from the point of view of some legal experts, Neubauer’s removal was a bad sign — part of an insidious pattern of politicization of Wisconsin’s courts. </b></div><div>
</div><div>Lawyers and other judges describe Neubauer as hardworking, courteous and an effective and efficient chief judge. Her removal raises questions about the way the courts are run, says Jeffrey Mandell, a Wisconsin attorney and founder of the progressive firm Law Forward. Mandell has never appeared before Neubauer or her appointed successor, Brash, and says he has no reason to doubt that Brash will do a good job as chief judge. Still, he says, “It does start to look less like a policy decision and more like some sort of personal issue, which is not how we want democratic institutions to work. It’s a little Banana Republic-y.”</div><div>
</div><div>Mandell sees Neubauer’s demotion as part of a pattern of lack of transparency that includes the court’s failure to set clear rules of recusal when justices have conflicts of interest, and its move to stop holding public meetings on administrative matters, including ethics and recusal, shrouding the court’s business in secrecy. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Banana Republic-y is also a good description of Justice Rebecca Bradley, who compared Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order during the pandemic to the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. She also recently diagnosed her colleagues with “‘hoplophobia’ — i.e. an irrational fear of guns,” after they sanctioned a Winnebago Co. judge who pulled a loaded Glock pistol out from under his robes during a court hearing.</span> </div><div>
</div><div>How did we get here?</div><div>
</div><div><b>The court has never resolved — or recovered from — the embarrassing 2011 incident in which then-Justice David Prosser was accused of trying to choke his colleague Ann Walsh Bradley in her office during a dispute about Wisconsin’s epic battle over collective bargaining rights. That sordid affair came to symbolize the decline of our state’s democratic institutions. </b></div><div>
</div><div><b>But the erosion of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s reputation goes back at least to 2008, when Michael Gableman defeated Wisconsin’s first African American supreme court justice, Luis Butler, in a campaign that made national news for its sheer ugliness </b>— Gableman ran misleading <b>Willie Horton-style ads against Butler —</b> and for the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"> flood of out-of-state money that poured into the race. Outside groups spent $4.8 million — a record that was not broken until this year.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The ideological makeup of the court flipped to a 4-3 conservative majority when Gableman, who had the backing of<b> rightwing and pro-corporate groups</b>, replaced Butler. </span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Gableman refused to recuse himself from cases involving his campaign contributors and helped usher in an era of ethical laxness on the court. He and his colleagues worked to undermine the late, distinguished Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, who was pushed out as chief, her tenure ended prematurely by a referendum put forward by Republicans that allowed the justices to elect their own chief instead of appointing the chief based on seniority. Conservatives on the court chose Patience Roggensack as their new chief.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Nobody is seeing the urgency because it’s a lot of small potatoes stuff. But it still adds up to a larger, disturbing picture.</div><div>
</div><div>– Retired Dane County Judge Richard Niess</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">A few years later, the same justices chose to<b> name the state law library after Prosser </b>(who once made the news when he called Abrahamson a “bitch” and said he would “destroy” her) — not the late Abrahamson, who, unlike Prosser, was considered for the U.S. Supreme Court and widely regarded as one of the country’s great legal minds.</span></div><div>
</div><div>“A lot of it is inside baseball,” retired Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess says of the way the current court conducts its business. “Nobody is seeing the urgency because it’s a lot of small potatoes stuff. But it still adds up to a larger, disturbing picture.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>That larger picture is a push to remake Wisconsin courts by moneyed interests. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker helped that effort along when he appointed three Supreme Court justices who were members of the Federalist Society — Daniel Kelly, Rebecca Bradley and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Brian Hagedorn</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">. The Federalist Society </span>is arguably the most powerful legal organization in the country, made up of conservative and libertarian lawyers and formed in the early 1980s to fight “liberal orthodoxy,” and, according to its homepage, dedicated to “reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law.” The group has chapters of law school students, faculty and practicing lawyers around the country and deep ties to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is also part of a nationwide network aiming to create more conservative, pro-corporate courts that has poured money into Wisconsin. “All of this is the national scene writ on a smaller stage,” says Niess.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In 2016, Craig Mastantuono, president of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s Milwaukee chapter, told the Wisconsin State Journal that the Federalist Society is engaged in “an organized takeover” of state and federal judiciaries. The effect, he said, is that big business and the wealthy will benefit from decision making in the courts.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Controversy around the Federalist Society’s influence in Wisconsin erupted in 2018, when Brian Hagedorn, then still an the appeals court judge, sent an email to judges around the state encouraging them to attend a Federalist Society conference and indicating that mileage and meals would be reimbursed by the state as well as offering continuing legal education credits to lawyers who attended.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Fifteen Wisconsin judges wrote to Hagedorn and the state’s judicial education committee in protest. Niess was among them.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Niess also sees Chief Justice Patience Roggesack’s pilot program in Dane County to create a separate, business court as part of a dangerous rightward drift. </b>“<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Special business interests now collaborate with our Chief Justice to hand pick those judges they want to decide their cases,” </span>he wrote in an email to local lawyers. “The Dane County Circuit Court will now be required to implement a two-tiered system of justice; one for the privileged few and one for the rest of us.”</div><div>
</div><div>Mandell takes a more sympathetic view of the concept of the business court, saying he understands the logic for his business clients of separating forums for different types of lawsuits. Still, he agrees with Niess about a general erosion of democracy in Wisconsin courts.</div><div>
</div><div>The power of a shadowy network of rightwing groups working against the public interest is evident in the coordinated effort to undermine public health orders during the pandemic by taking cases against them to the Supreme Court.</div><div>
</div><div><b>AJL is actively working to track and support right-wing legal challenges to upend COVID-19 health restrictions, fight workers’ rights to unionize, and coordinate legal strategies</b></div><div>
</div><div>– Center for Media and Democracy</div><div>
</div><div>Earlier this year, the Center for Media and Democracy reported on a new rightwing legal center called <b>American Juris Link </b>that is “actively working to track and support right-wing legal challenges to upend COVID-19 health restrictions, fight workers’ rights to unionize, and coordinate legal strategies”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The group was “incubated by the State Policy Network” — a network of rightwing think tanks in all 50 states — CMD reported. Its founder and president, Carrie Ann Donnell, is the director of the Federalist Society’s pro-bono center.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The Wisconsin-based Bradley Foundation provided American Juris Link with $100,000 in start-up funds in 2020, and CMD identified the <b>Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL</b>) among the recipients of the group’s assistance.</div><div>
</div><div>Not only does the Bradley-financed Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty continually file lawsuits seeking to champion rightwing interests in the courts, a parallel effort, funded by the same group of allies that supports WILL, is transforming those courts into a friendlier forum for such lawsuits. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The tool for transforming the courts is money. As the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s former director Mike McCabe pointed out back in 2008, after the Gableman race opened the floodgates to cash in state court races, buying state supreme court seats is a relative bargain, compared with congressional races. And much of the business that concerns corporations, including environmental regulations and labor protections, happens at the state level.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Thus, the Republican State Leadership Committee poured more than $1.2 million into last-minute ads to help Hagedorn beat Neubauer by less than 1% of the vote in 2019.</b> The Republican State Leadership Committee also spent heavily to help elect Rebecca Bradley.</div><div>
</div><div>“Wisconsin is not the only state where RSLC is flexing its multi-million-dollar muscle to place corporate-friendly or right-wing judges on state courts in order to advance its funders’ interest,” CMD’s Lisa Graves writes, reeling off spending on court races in Arkansas, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.</div><div>
</div><div>Predictably, in recent years the influx of outside money has been making Wisconsin judicial races more and more expensive, according to data collected by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Candidates and outside special interest groups spent a record-shattering $10 million in the last Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April 2020, the Democracy Campaign reported. </div><div>
</div><div>And it has become an arms race, with money pouring in on both sides.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Top outside spenders in the latest Supreme Court race were A Better Wisconsin Together Political fund, which spent $1.87 million, mostly on ads supporting Karofsky, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which spent $1.1 million to help Walker appointee Daniel Kelly (mostly with anti-Karofsky ads), the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spent $897,499 on Kelly, and Americans for Prosperity, which spent $479,463 on Kelly.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Karofsky, who won, set an all-time record for spending by an individual candidate at $2.7 million. And there is no end in sight.</b></div><div>
</div><div>“The 2023 election is absolutely critical,” says Neiss. “A lot of outstate money will come in on both sides.”</div><div>
</div><div>As a judge, I was not at liberty to freely comment on these disturbing trends without the potential for retribution from the Court</div><div>
</div><div>– Retired Dane County Judge Richard Niess</div><div>
</div><div><b>Niess says he became frustrated and decided to retire, in part, due to the “increasing threats to the integrity and independence of the Supreme Court by overt and covert right wing influence over its legal decisions and operating procedures.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>“The mounting secrecy surrounding the Court’s operating procedures, the sneaky imposition of the unnecessary business court on Dane County by the chief justice, and the clandestine manner in which the <b>highly respected Judge Neubauer was summarily sacked as chief judge</b>, are just three examples,” he says.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Outside group spending in Wisconsin Supreme Court races</b></div><div>2003: Ed Brunner vs. Pat Roggensack $27,200</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">2007: Linda Clifford vs. Annette Ziegler $3.1 million</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">2008: Louis Butler vs. Michael Gableman $4.8 million</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">2009: Shirley Abrahamson vs. Randy Kschnick $577,000</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">2011 David Prosser vs. JoAnne Kloppenburg $4.5 million</span></div><div>
</div><div>2013 Pat Roggensack vs. Ed Fallone $1.2 million</div><div>
</div><div>2015: Ann Walsh Bradley vs. James P. Daley $171,000</div><div>
</div><div>2016: Rebecca Bradley vs. Janne Kloppenburg $3.43 million</div><div>
</div><div>2018 Rebecca Dallet vs. Michael Screnock $2.8 million</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019: Brian Hagedorn vs. Lisa Neubauer $4.5 million</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">2020: Jill Karofsky vs. Daniel Kelly $5 million</span></div><div>
</div><div>source: Wisconsin Democracy Campaign</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><b>Niess also had a run-in with the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2014 when the Court ordered him to dismiss a challenge to the voter ID law by the League of Women Voters. He refused,</b> instead recusing himself, writing that he believed following the court’s order would violate his oath to uphold the state constitution. He then was threatened with sanction in an unsuccessful complaint before the state Judicial Commission.</div><div>“As a judge, I was not at liberty to freely comment on these disturbing trends without the potential for retribution from the Court,” he says.</div><div>
</div><div>To Wisconsin attorney Dean Strang, the biggest loss to Wisconsin courts as they become increasingly politicized is not so much ideological as it is a more general decline of integrity.</div><div>
</div><div>“The consistent media fallacy in discussing the Wisconsin Supreme Court is that there is a liberal minority on it. There is not,” he says. “There is a conservative, often retrenching, majority. And then there is a moderate, pragmatic minority.”</div><div>
</div><div>Conservatives and reactionary populists have shifted the ideological spectrum so far to the right that mere moderation now is mistaken as a leftist threat</div><div>
</div><div>– Attorney Dean Strang</div><div>
</div><div><b>After Abrahamson, “the court no longer has any liberal voice at all,” he says.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">He sees the media shorthand, citing “liberal” and “conservative” justices, as part of a broader, dispiriting trend. “Conservatives and reactionary populists have shifted the ideological spectrum so far to the right that mere moderation now is mistaken as a leftist threat,” he says.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The proxy partisan warfare in court races has also endangered intellectual honesty and the unbiased assessment of the facts — hallmarks of a good appellate judges, Strang adds. </div><div>
</div><div>That’s not to say that he agrees with<b> doctrine of “originalism” promoted by the Federalist Society</b>, which he describes as “the claim that judging is like archaeology: that judges simply dig carefully through books until they ‘find’ the law, as if it were some buried shard of ancient pottery.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Instead, a good judge is like an architect, he says, constrained by the text of the law and by precedent the same way an architect is constrained by the laws of physics and engineering, and using the facts of a case </b>“as the site for a construction of law that features the highest ideals that our constitution and legal culture profess.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Instead, our current judicial system seems to be moving in the opposite direction, digging for money, eyes on the ground.</b></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ggl grab 921</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The organized takeover of Wisconsin courts - Wisconsin ...https://wisconsinexaminer.com › 2021/07/29 › the-orga...</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Jul 29, 2021 — Gableman refused to recuse himself from cases involving his campaign ... The Federalist Society is arguably the most powerful legal ...</div><div>
</div></div></div><div>=</div><div><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In March, Wisconsin-based businessman and Republican donor Jeré Fabick filed a lawsuit against election officials in his state, taking the case directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And on April 9, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/12/wisconsin-supreme-court-may-block-latest-election-lawsuit/7188024002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Justice Brian Hagedorn</a> — who was supported by Republicans in 2019 — sided with the Court's more liberal justices when he showed skepticism over letting the lawsuit move forward.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, Milwaukee Sentinel Journal reporter Patrick Marley notes, "The lawsuit is in an early stage, and Hagedorn could wind up agreeing with the other conservatives on the merits of the case."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Marley points out that Fabick "sued election officials to try to prevent them from using ballot drop boxes and filling in the addresses of witnesses on absentee ballot envelopes if they were missing" and also "sought to limit who can return absentee ballots to clerks on behalf of voters."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ordinarily, an election-related complaint in Fabick's state would begin with the Wisconsin Elections Commission. But under Wisconsin law, cases can be filed directly with the Wisconsin Supreme Court rather than with a lower court — and its up to the justices to decide whether they want to hear the case or demand that it first be filed with a circuit court.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Marley, however, observes that in Wisconsin, "Another law says any challenge to election matters must start with a complaint before the bipartisan Elections Commission. The losing side can appeal the Commission's decisions to court."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The more liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court justices who joined Hagedorn in his April 9 ruling on Fabick's lawsuit were Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, Justice Rebecca Dallet and Justice Jill Karofsky, while the dissenters were Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, Justice Rebecca Bradley and Justice Annette Ziegler.</p><div class="around-the-web" style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-size: 0px; font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/supreme-court-justices-2020/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">There's a surprising ending to the Supreme Court's most ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/these-four-states-supreme-court-elections-are-key-for-stopping-gop-gerrymandering/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">These four states' Supreme Court elections are key for stopping ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/justice-ginsburg-sends-out-dire-warning-about-the-new-supreme-court-ruling-in-wisconsin-election-case/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">Justice Ginsburg sends out dire warning about the new Supreme ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-size: 0px; font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-rejects-trump-election-lawsuit" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; font-size: 12px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects Trump election lawsuit | PBS ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wisconsin-supreme-court-blocks-republican-backed-purge-of-voter-rolls-01618155959" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; font-size: 12px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks Republican-backed purge of voter ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisonsin-supreme-court-trump-lawsuit-e6b3aa222b4141c0844d541c4b041964" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; font-size: 12px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">Wisconsin Supreme Court tosses Trump election lawsuit ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div>=</div><div>
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</div><div><b>Wisconsin Supreme Court rules to keep Green Party off the ballot</b></div><div>Patrick Marley</div><div>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</div><div>
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</div><div>MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court kept the Green Party's presidential ticket off the ballot Monday, disappointing party members but ensuring more than a million absentee ballots will be sent to voters Thursday as required by state law. </div><div>
</div><div>The ruling also bolsters hopes for Democrats, who feared presidential nominee Joe Biden could lose a small share of his votes to the liberal third party. Republicans had hoped the Green Party would shave just enough votes from Biden's total to give President Donald Trump a victory this fall in a state he narrowly won in 2016. </div><div>
</div><div><b>Justice Brian Hagedorn broke with his fellow conservatives to form a majority with the court's liberals that kept Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins off the ballot. </b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The majority found Hawkins and his running mate, Milwaukee native Angela Walker, waited too long to bring their legal challenge. </b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Even if we would ultimately determine that the petitioners’ claims are meritorious, given their delay in asserting their rights, we would be unable to provide meaningful relief without completely upsetting the election," the majority wrote in its unsigned opinion. </span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The state Elections Commission split 3-3 last month on whether to put Hawkins and Walker on the ballot. The Republican members of the commission backed putting Hawkins on the ballot but the Democratic members opposed doing so because Walker had listed two addresses on her campaign paperwork. </b></div><div>
</div><div>Walker said she listed two addresses because she moved while the Green Party collected signatures to get on the ballot. She and Hawkins this month asked the Supreme Court to put them on the ballot, contending the state Elections Commission hadn't followed the law.</div><div>
</div><div><b>"We were screwed," Hawkins said in a statement. "Partisan hacks should not be running elections for their own parties."</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The justices on Thursday issued a 4-3 order telling election officials not to send absentee ballots while they decided whether to take the case.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That order was issued by conservatives who control the court. The court's liberals dissented. </span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">But in a second 4-3 decision, the court on Monday vacated its earlier order and determined ballots could be mailed now. This time, the majority consisted of Hagedorn and the court's liberals, Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky.</span></div><div>
</div><div>In dissent were three conservatives, Chief Justice Patience<b> Roggensack and Justices Rebecca Bradley and Annette Ziegler</b>. (The Bradleys are not related.)</div><div>
</div><div><b>Roggensack called the Elections Commission "lawless" for keeping Hawkins and Walker off the ballot.</b></div><div>
</div><div>"This lawsuit is not about the Green Party sleeping on its rights," she wrote in an opinion joined by the other dissenters. "It is about the treatment that independent candidates from a small political party received from the Commission, who repeatedly refused to follow the law relative to nomination papers."</div><div>
</div><div>In a separate dissent, Ziegler wrote that keeping a worthy candidate off the ballot is "the ultimate voter suppression."</div><div>
</div><div>The majority "deprives the Wisconsin people of a voice and strips them of one of the most fundamental tenets of this republic: the right to express one's will at the ballot box," Ziegler wrote. </div><div>
</div><div>The majority decided not to take the case because of looming deadlines. Clerks are required under state law to mail absentee ballots to those who have requested them by Thursday. A separate federal law sets a Saturday deadline for mailing absentee ballots to military and overseas voters. </div><div>
</div><div>The majority concluded some ballots may have already been sent, and found that confusion would reign if clerks had to send those voters a second ballot with the names of additional candidates. </div><div>
</div><div>The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday identified clerks across the state who together had prepared hundreds of thousands of absentee mailings. But none of the clerks reached by the newspaper said they had actually mailed any ballots yet. </div><div>
</div><div>Clerks will mail more than a million absentee ballots on Thursday and then send others as they receive requests from voters. Absentee voting this fall is expected to set a record because of the coronavirus pandemic.</div><div>
</div><div>Claire Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, expressed relief Monday that she would not have to reprint ballots.</div><div>
</div><div>"I’m just glad that they made a decision today and recognized the expediency that election administrators and voters need, that they didn’t delay any further," she said.</div><div>
</div><div>The case had significant implications for this fall's presidential race. Both Republicans and Democrats believe Hawkins could have siphoned off some of Biden's support, hurting his chances of beating Trump in Wisconsin. </div><div>
</div><div><b>Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes in Wisconsin. That year Green Party nominee Jill Stein received about 31,000 votes in the state.</b> </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Hawkins' legal team has links to Republicans. One of his aides asked Robert Spindell, a Republican on the Elections Commission, for advice last month on who to hire as an attorney, according to emails between Spindell and Hawkins aide Kevin Zeese.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hawkins' lead attorney, Andrew Phillips of von <b>Briesen & Roper,</b> was hired last year by Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee to help them sort out a long-running dispute with Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul over how to handle court settlements. </span></div><div>
</div><div>Another attorney on the case, Jacob Curtis, has worked for Republican former Gov. Scott Walker, Republican state Sen. Duey Stroebel of Saukville and the conservative <b>Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Phillips also represents the Wisconsin Counties Association, and most counties didn't want the Green Party ticket added to the ballot because they didn't want to reprint ballots. Some supervisors in Milwaukee and Dane counties raised the prospect of quitting the association because its lawyers were working against their interests. </div><div>
</div><div><b>The court issued its ruling as rapper Kanye West also tries to get on Wisconsin's ballot. </b>West, who has praised Trump and gotten help from Republicans, was kept off the ballot after the state Elections Commission ruled 5-1 that his team missed a filing deadline by seconds or minutes. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">West sued to get on the ballot, but a Brown County judge on Friday ruled he shouldn't be on Wisconsin's ballot because of the late filing.</span></div><div>
</div><div>He could appeal, but Monday's ruling in the Green Party case suggests he would have little chance of getting on the ballot at this stage. </div><div>
</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Hagedorn offers a swing vote</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Hagedorn was elected in 2019 with the support of Republicans, but he has departed from his conservative colleagues at times.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In January, he sided with liberals on the court to <b>decline quickly taking a lawsuit over whether people who are believed to have moved should be taken off the voter rolls.</b> That initial decision means those voters are likely to stay on the rolls at least through the Nov. 3 election. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In May, Hagedorn, joined liberals in dissent over a ruling that struck down the stay-at-home order issued by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration to combat the pandemic. </span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Since then, the stakes have become higher for cases involving close votes. Karofsky last month was sworn in as a justice after defeating conservative Justice Daniel Kelly this spring. </b></div><div>
</div><div>Her victory narrowed the court's conservative majority from 5-2 to 4-3. That means liberals can form a majority when they can pick off at least one conservative vote, as they did Monday.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.</div><div>
</div><div>Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.</div><div>
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</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Koch Network and Christian Right Celebrate Apparent Hagedorn Victory in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/Td5d03276-682e-4a43-86ad-31408f749824/ac94ac0d-31ce-11e7-960b-0a8abee05f34" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">David Armiak</a> — Right-wing Judge Brian Hagedorn leads Judge Lisa Neubauer by less than half a percent.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/T0f93aa8a-6ba6-4db8-983e-967a90046046/ac94ac0d-31ce-11e7-960b-0a8abee05f34" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Read more >></font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4/19</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Koch brothers’ astroturf operation, </span><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (AFP), and Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) are exuberant over </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brian_Hagedorn" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Brian Hagedorn</a>‘s</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> apparent razor-thin victory over Lisa Neubauer on Tuesday for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</span></b></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hagedorn is winning by less than 6,000 votes, or less than a half a percent, the Associated Press is <a href="https://elections.ap.org/wpr/election_results/2019-04-02/state/WI/race/G/raceid/50888" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">reporting</a>. If the margin holds, Wisconsin law allows for a recount, but Neubauer would have to foot the bill.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hagedorn has declared victory in the race, but Neubauer has not conceded and is considering a recount. The eventual winner will replace longtime Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson who announced her retirement last year.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If the Kochs’ Hagedorn is elected, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will move one seat further to the right with a 5-2 majority.</b></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</b></font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kochs, Christian Right Rejoice</font></h2><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hagedorn’s biggest supporter in terms of money was the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_State_Leadership_Committee" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Republican State Leadership Committee</a> (RSLC), which took out <a href="https://rslc.gop/news/2019/04/03/conservative-judge-brian-hagedorn-wins-election-to-wisconsin-supreme-court/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">$1.3 million</a> in TV and digital ads. The RSLC funnels millions in corporate money into state campaigns, and counts tobacco companies, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Judicial Crisis Network, pharmaceutical giants, and Koch Industries among its <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_contribs.php?ein=050532524&cycle=2018" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">top funders</a>.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But it was the Kochs and the <b>Christian Right group Wisconsin Family Action</b> who are credited with Hagedorn coming out on top. AFP spent over <a href="https://www.wisdc.org/news/press-releases/126-press-release-2019/6333-outside-spending-groups-make-homestretch-push-for-hagedorn" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">$200,000</a> on canvassing efforts and mailings. According to its State Director, Eric Bott, AFP talked to more than <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-statement-on-wisconsin-supreme-court-race/?utm_source=AFP+Social&utm_medium=TWITTER&linkId=65647771" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">750,000 voters</a> and sent out over 1.5 million targeted mailings in the seven weeks up to the election.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There’s no question our engagement made a huge difference,” Bott <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-statement-on-wisconsin-supreme-court-race/?utm_source=AFP+Social&utm_medium=TWITTER&linkId=65647771" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a>.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WFA spent more than $25,000 on mailings and brochures for Hagedorn as well. WFA thanked AFP for its efforts and extended “a hearty congratulations and thanks to Brian and his family for their hard work and steadfast commitment to staying the course despite the unjust attacks on their personal lives and their religious beliefs,” in a <a href="https://wifamilyaction.org/category/wisconsin-family-voice/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">press release</a> following the election.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One Wisconsin Now <a href="https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-candidate-helped-found-academy-that-bans-lgbt/article_99a6c71e-104c-5d28-a98d-afe5342843ad.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">revealed</a> that Hagedorn founded a school that prohibits anyone working there from being in a same-sex relationship and could expel students who identify as LGBTQ.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/daniel-bice/2019/01/31/wisconsin-supreme-court-candidate-once-tied-gay-rights-bestiality/2699726002/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em></a> also exposed an old blog Hagedorn wrote from 2005 where he addressed his “fellow soldiers in the culture wars,” stating that “the idea that homosexual behavior is different than bestiality as a constitutional matter is unjustifiable.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the revelations of his hateful stance towards the LGBT community, the Wisconsin Realtors Association revoked its endorsement of Hagedorn <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/21/realtors-revoke-endorsement-supreme-court-candidate-after-reports-he-founded-school-allowed-expulsio/2936284002/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">saying</a>, “The real estate related issues that served as the basis for our endorsement have been overshadowed by other, non-real estate related issues — issues with which we do not want to be associated and that directly conflict with the principles of our organization and the values of our members.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The U.S. Chamber of Commerce,</b> which often funnels money to right-wing candidates through the <b>Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce</b>, followed suit, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/06/wisconsin-supreme-court-u-s-chamber-commerce-stays-away-race/3071945002/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">according</a> to the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Journal Sentinel</em>.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hagedorn and other influential right-wing leaders in the state, such as Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty’s Rick Esenberg, framed the anti-LGBT Hagedorn revelations as attacks on “<a href="https://twitter.com/RickEsenberg/status/1113295928440520705" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">religious tolerance</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.” Esenberg, who donated to Hagedorn, regularly brings cases in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">WFA riled its base to support Hagedorn, claiming he had been “viciously and unjustly attacked,” and warning of dire results if he lost the election and liberals won the next 2020 Supreme Court election. If that happens, there will be a “deluge of cases…against faith-based adoption agencies, cases against Christian florists and photographers,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinFamilyAction/videos/2131538823804033/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> WFA President Julaine Appling. “You could probably kiss aspects of voter ID, or concealed carry, or right-to-work, or portions of Act 10 goodbye.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two hours prior to polls closing, WFA <a href="https://twitter.com/WIFamilyAction/status/1113209761653231616" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">attempted to motivate</a> Twitter followers by adding that Neubauer was endorsed by “pro-abortion” Planned Parenthood and “pro-LGBT” Human Rights Council.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WFA has been active in pushing a Christian Right agenda in the state for years, as the Center for Media and Democracy</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> (CMD) reported last year in <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Conquering_the_courts_report-FINAL-WEB05-10-18.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Conquering the Courts: The Religious Right’s Fight to Rig the Rules and Undermine Judicial Independence</em>.</a> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WFA is an affiliate of the </span><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Policy_Alliance" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Family Policy Alliance</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, a national network of 40 groups in 38 states that spends millions to influence state legislation and elect socially conservative candidates.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2006, WFA partnered with Family Research Institute of Wisconsin and Focus on the Family to spend heavily on a media campaign for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The amendment passed but was overturned in 2014 when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals declared the marriage ban unconstitutional.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2008, WFA and Wisconsin Right to Life worked together to unseat Louis Butler on the Supreme Court, which resulted in the election of Michael Gableman.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WFA also played a big role in former Governor Scott Walker’s dark money operation in 2011 and 2012, channeling $1.2 million in cash from Wisconsin Club for Growth and Citizens for a Strong America into recall elections.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><p style=" text-align: left;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p style=" text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> <b>Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, a right-wing legal
association which has been helping Republican presidents and politicians
pack the courts,</b> held its “Inaugural Wisconsin Chapters Conference”
amid controversy at the Monona Terrace in Madison on May 4, 2018.</font>
</p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before the Madison event even got underway, a group of 15 Wisconsin
judges protested the use of state resources and the awarding of judicial
education credits for attendance at an event organized by a “private
advocacy group with a definite political agenda,” which featured a
speech by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who is up for
reelection this year.</font></span></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The judges wrote to organizers of the event to ask if state money was
used for a ACLU event featuring a Democratic candidate, “would the
Office of State Courts financially underwrite the event and incentivize
judicial attendance with credits towards the judges’ mandatory
continuing legal education?”</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Judges Protest State Subsidy for a Political Event</font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Federalist Society is a considered by many to be a highly
partisan political operation. The Federalist Society’s Executive Vice
President, Leonard Leo, played a leading role in the nomination of
Justice Neil Gorsuch and other far-right Trump court picks, and Leo has
long been involved in the Judicial Crisis Network, a dark money group
that spent millions on TV ads backing the Gorsuch nomination.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But on April 25, 2018, State Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn sent
out an email to judges encouraging them to attend the Federalist Society
conference.</b> The email indicated that mileage and meals would be
reimbursed by the state and that two judicial education credits would be
awarded for attendance. The program also indicated that continuing
legal education credits would also be awarded to lawyers who attended.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fifteen Wisconsin judges wrote to Hagedorn and the Judicial Education Committee in protest.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The letter, obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), states:</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We find it highly inappropriate that the Office of State
Courts is spending money on this event. We object that a single
appellate judge – apparently a member of the Federalist Society – would
broadcast this “invitation” to the bench on state email thus adding
subtle pressure on circuit judges to attend. Finally, during an election
year, we do not believe it is appropriate for the judicial branch to be
underwriting attendance at a private event where the Attorney General,
who is on the ballot in a politically partisan race, is the keynote
speaker.</font></p></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimel <a href="https://fedsoc.org/contributors/brad-schimel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is a member</a>
of the Federalist Society and a dark money operation associated with
the group aided Schimel’s campaign in 2014. The Federalist Society’s
Leonard Leo was listed as a director of the Rule of Law Project, which
spent $200,000 in support of Schimel late in the 2014 race, <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/06/13118/schimel-rule-of-law-project-complaint" target="blank" rel="noopener">prompting a federal complaint</a> by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Schimel also received <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/index.php?from=--&to=--&employer=Federalist+Society&filter=+Search+&module=wisdc.websiteforms&cmd=searchadvanced" target="blank" rel="noopener">$2,000</a> from Leo personally.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Hagedorn</b> was Governor Scott Walker’s chief legal counsel from
2011-2015 when CMD was forced to sue Walker for records related to his
controversial changes to the “Wisconsin Idea.” Walker had to be
represented by his legal staff after Schimel decided not to defend the
governor in the case. CMD ultimately <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/05/13113/we-won-our-open-records-suit-against-governor-walker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won that suit,</a> proving that the controversial changes were not a “drafting error” as claimed, but originated in Walker’s office.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hagedorn was a Federalist Society member in college and<b> interned at
the Alliance Defense Fund</b>, an organization founded by leaders of the
Christian Right. Today, it is called the Alliance Defending Freedom
(ADF), and members of this group were also at the event. Hagedorn is
also reportedly planning a run for the Wisconsin Supreme Court against
long-time Justice Shirley Abrahamson.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The independence of the judiciary has been under especially heavy
attack over the last decade from many sources,” the judges wrote. “The
last thing the Office of State Courts should be doing is contributing to
the problem by politicizing our judicial training.”</font></span></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD confirmed with the Wisconsin Court System that the judges did in
fact receive taxpayer money to attend, but was not given the details as
to what exactly was covered.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimel Campaigns, Embraces Anti-LGBT Hate Group</font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The judges’ concerns about the political nature of the state-subsidized event proved to be justified.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To large applause, keynote speaker Brad Schimel took the mic in front
of the backdrop of Lake Monona to promote his work over the last three
and a half years and to thank attendees for their involvement in the
Federalist Society.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimel kicked off his presentation by reminding the audience that
“it is an election year.” He then catalogued his accomplishments in a
campaign-like speech:</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Act 10 still fighting, two months ago another lawsuit
filed against Act 10, voter ID of course still fighting, Right to Work,
</b>still fighting sort of, mostly won on that one. The redistricting thing,
we thought we’d have a decision in February and now we don’t know but
quite a battle and I’m very proud of the team. They really shined at the
United States Supreme Court.</font></p></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That Supreme Court case was <em>Gil vs. Whitford</em>. The U.S.
Federal Court for the Western District of Wisconsin decided that
Wisconsin Republicans had engaged in such <b>egregious, hyper-partisan
gerrymandering</b> after the 2010 census that new maps must be drawn. The
case is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and Schimel has spent
hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money hiring outside lawyers to help
with that case.</font></span></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimel also discussed the “regulatory certainty” he helped to create
while in office that led to companies like Foxconn, the Taiwanese
electronics company, setting up business in the state.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Previously,
Schimel boasted of being the <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2018/04/13334/ag-academy-republican-attorneys-general-get-schooled-corporate-lobbyistsx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“bag man” </a>for
Governor Walker’s efforts to stifle regulations from multiple agencies
at the Republican Attorneys General Association conference in January,
according to a report by Maplight.</span></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Notably, Schimel’s opponent in the November 2018 race, attorney Josh Kaul, was not invited to speak, his office reports.</font></span></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimel concluded by recognizing his “friend from the Alliance
Defending Freedom” in the room and stating that his time spent at the
ADF’s conference last year was “some of the best time I ever spent.” One
Wisconsin Now, a liberal advocacy group, pointed out that the
conference was at a luxury resort in California and is <a href="http://onewisconsinnow.org/press/what-did-brad-schimel-say-to-hate-group-at-their-conference/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanding information</a> about that trip.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Brad Schimel needs to come clean on why, in his official capacity as
Attorney General of the state of Wisconsin, he took over $4,100 for
first class travel and accommodations to appear before a hate group,”
said Executive Director Scot Ross, who wants Schimel’s office make his
remarks publicly available.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alliance Defending Freedom Participates in State-Supported Conference</font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) group applauded by Schimel has been labeled a <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/alliance-defending-freedom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hate group</a> by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors neo-Nazi and other extremist groups.</font></span></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SPLC reports that the ADF has “supported the recriminalization of
homosexuality in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended
state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has linked
homosexuality to pedophilia and claims that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will
destroy Christianity and society.”</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jordan Lorence, Senior Counsel at ADF, attempted to make the case
that Christianity is under attack in America and defended businesses
that want to discriminate against LGBT people for religious reasons in
his discussion of ADF’s lawsuit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court <em>Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission</em>. The case involves a cake maker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans Make the Best Judicial Appointments</font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Federalist Society event’s partisan nature was evident in panel
discussions as well. The main takeaway in the panel “State and Federal
Judicial Selection” was clearly that Republicans choose better judges.
Carrie Severino, Chief Counsel and Policy Director for the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Judicial_Crisis_Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Judicial Crisis Network,</a> praised Trump over and over for his judicial nominations and blamed the Democrats for not confirming his nominees.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Severino, of course, made no mention of the fact that GOP Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell orchestrated a two-year slowdown of
judicial confirmations before Trump took office that left him with more
than 100 seats to fill, or his unprecedented refusal to hold a
confirmation vote on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to
the Supreme Court.</font></span></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Judicial Crisis Network received over $6.7 million from the
mysterious Wellspring Committee in 2014 and funneled that money into
judicial campaigns and elections and other activities.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walker’s Chief Legal Counsel Katie Ignatowski was given ample time on
the panel to let lawyers and judges in the room know what they need to
do to get a judicial appointment or nomination from the governor,
including to “be in organizations like the Federalist Society.” Around
25 percent of seated judges in Wisconsin have been appointed by Walker,
Ignatowski noted.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Diane Sykes, Wisconsin
Supreme Court Judges Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly, and Trump’s
highly controversial nominee for the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of
Appeals, Michael Brennan, were all in attendance at the inaugural event.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Federalist Society has received millions in funding from
right-wing foundations, including the Milwaukee-based Bradley
Foundation, the Koch family foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation,
Sarah Scaife Foundation, Searle Freedom Trust, among others.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
The program for the event is embedded belo</font><p style=" text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
<a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/10/judges-object-state-funds-federalist-society-brad-schimel-hate-group"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/10/judges-object-state-funds-federalist-society-brad-schimel-hate-group</font></a></font></p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font>
=
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