Wisconsin’s Supreme Court could buffer the state from federal chaos or invite it in

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Maybe Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel’s campaign workers had a bunch of extra door hangers to dump, or maybe they’re incompetent. Either way, they decided to dump a bunch of door hangers in Madison that read “[Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate] Susan Crawford will block President Trump’s agenda”—easily one of the best endorsements for Crawford I’ve heard. 

Let’s take a step back and admit that voting for judges is absurd. Most people—including myself—do not know enough about the legal system, much less what judges actually do day-in and day-out, to evaluate whether or not a judge is good at their job. Even with courts as visible to the public as the U.S. Supreme Court. I know SCOTUS sucks, but I listen to the 5-4 podcast so I can understand, legally, how they suck. But a Circuit or District court judge? Unless things have gotten so wildly out of hand it makes headlines, who knows.

Which is why it was not surprising, but deeply concerning, that a month before the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, 38% of respondents to a Marquette poll said they didn’t have an opinion about Schimel, even though he was Wisconsin’s Attorney General from 2015 to 2019. I guess the years Schimel slow-walked testing thousands of backlogged sexual assault kits have been memory-holed, along with Trump’s first term in office. In that same Marquette poll, 58% of respondents said they didn’t have an opinion about Crawford, but that’s more understandable because she’s had a lower profile.

Cue the money people. In an information vacuum, it’s easy to comb through Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates’ judicial records and find a case for those grainy black-and-white ads. “[NAME] released an axe-wielding tiger into a preschool,” the ominous voice reads. “Say ‘no’ to axe-wielding tigers.” (Here’s a Wisconsin Watch breakdown of some of those ad claims.) Elon Musk has funnelled more than $17 million into supporting Schimel as of Tuesday. If you, like me, are enjoying the drop in Tesla’s stock, imagine how satisfying it would be to see Musk sink that money into buying a seat on our state Supreme Court, only for it to fail. 

Helpfully, for voters, Schimel’s campaign has decided to go all-in on voicing support for President Donald Trump, saying that if elected he’ll be a “support network” for the administration.

“They filed over 70 lawsuits against him since he took the oath of office barely a month ago,” Schimel says in a recording leaked to the Wisconsin Examiner. “Over 70 lawsuits to try to stop almost every single thing he’s doing because they don’t want him to get a win.”

That’s one interpretation. Another would be that this administration is bulldozing our right to everything from due process to bodily autonomy, and wrecking the public services we need to not just thrive but to survive, all while usurping Congress’ powers. And since national Democratic leadership is asleep at the wheel (or preoccupied with a book tour), we’re forced to take it to the courts. The results have been a mixed bag so far, but there have been some important legal victories against the Trump administration, even by Trump’s own hand-picked SCOTUS justices. These are for court cases involving federal agencies, where the administration can act first, then ask for permission later. Having judges who tell the administration “no” at the state level, where they would need to be granted access first, is crucial to maintaining any kind of buffer between Wisconsin and the administration’s excesses.

And look, as a 41-year-old, I have been voting in “make-or-break” elections since I turned 18. So, if you are exhausted with voting and seeing the country continue to deteriorate into fascism, I get it. But if the left sits this one out, it’s going to get worse. 

This fascist movement is top-down. It’s starting at the federal government and will continue down to the states and into our communities. We have to fight it from the bottom-up—organize in our communities, participate in local government, and engage with what’s happening at the state level. A Marquette poll from just last year found that 43% of respondents didn’t know enough about Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to form an opinion on him. Vos is the longest-serving Assembly Speaker in Wisconsin history and the architect of so much of the state’s dysfunction. If you’re mad about Wisconsin taxes, gerrymandering, housing, child care, healthcare—pretty much everything—Robin Vos has actively molded it into what it is today. Sitting this election out would also mean losing out on the opportunity to undo some of the most egregious harms Vos and former Gov. Scott Walker enacted. SCOWIS will hear a case calling for the repeal of repeal Act 10, which could restore bargaining rights to public employees. It has already held a hearing challenging the state’s abortion law, which could restore abortion access, and with it, bodily and medical autonomy.

Engaging with news today feels like drinking from a fire hose. My coping mechanism is to focus on what I can control—the systems and elections closest to me that most closely shape my reality. You may be forced to drink from the fire hose at some point during the day, but making a deliberate effort to consume local news and follow local politics will give you a clearer sense of what needs to be done. And what you can, and should, do is vote on April 1.

(P.S. Brittany Kinser, a candidate for state superintendent, has worked at charter schools or as a pro-charter consultant since 2008. She is being funded by people who want to defund public schools, and is a big proponent of using tax dollars to fund charters and private schools. Both Kinser and current state superintendent Jill Underly are also on the April 1 ballot.)

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