Bias On The Bench

By Jeff Simpson

Bruce Thompson had a very interesting piece in UrbanMilwaukee about our radical Supreme Court.

In each of these cases, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ended up ignoring the constitution—federal, state, or both. Its Imani decision accomplished the remarkable feat of violating both constitutions. Its residency requirement decision guts the Wisconsin Constitution’s home rule amendment. Its Doe II decision substituted its judgment for that of the US Supreme Court by saying that regulating coordination between candidates violated the US Constitution. This has become a very odd court indeed.

I think that Mr. Thompson has given them too much credit.  To say that our Wisconsin Supreme Court is radical, is to imply that they truly have a set of standards and beliefs and a moral compas that aligns with the right wing in our state.  I think we know from their actions that just is not true.

I believe a better term would be incompetent or even hyper partisan or bought and paid for.  After Wisconsin elected Mike Gableman, I thought it was safe to say that he was the most incompetent person ever elected to the Supreme Court in our state or probably any state.  

Then like so many other times in the Republic of Fitzwalkerstan, I was yet again surprised by the depths we could go when Wisconsin elected known bigot Jessica Bradley.

I hesitate to even say this is as low as we can get, I am scared to see what they can do next that will surprise me.  

As crazy and incompetent as they are, they know where their bread is buttered.  Justice David "Ike Turner" Prosser will be retiring soon and in typical right wing politician fashion, he has still not paid his bills that he accumulated trying to stop a recount of his last election.  

The GOP is stepping in to help him retire his years old debt.  However it is not just the WISGOP doing it, in a huge bit of irony, it is Danny Morse, a fundraiser from the "Friends of Scott Walker" organization(membership is extremely limited).  

Of course Mr. Walker has his own fair share of debt that he ran up on the backs of Wisconsin taxpayers and is in absolutely no hurry to pay off.  

To be fair though, anyone who has paid attention the last six years, knows that there is no bigger "friend of Scott Walker" than Dave Prosser.   Without his cover and rubber stamp, Walker would have had to actually govern.  

Sorry for putting that thought into your head!