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AP file photo DEATH AND POLITICS: The
passingof conservative Justice Antonin Scalia has set off a firestorm of political fighting and no shortage of hypocrisy from the left. |
But the group failed to mention its strident opposition just months ago to Gov. Scott Walker’s constitutional authority and duty to appoint a replacement for the late state Supreme Court Justice N. Patrick Crooks.
“Putting political advantage and cronyism before qualifications, Gov. Scott Walker announced today he has appointed Rebecca Bradley to the open seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court,” One Wisconsin Now declared in a statement issued Oct. 9.
Bradley, considered part of the court’s conservative wing, was an announced candidate for Crooks’ seat before being appointed by the Republican governor.
Liberals in general, and legislative Democrats in particular, were absolutely apoplectic about Walker’s appointment just months out from the Supreme Court election, slated for April. No fair, they cried. Bradley’s appointment, they protested, gives the justice an incumbent’s advantage that will be difficult for left-wing appeals court judge JoAnne Kloppenburg and left-wing circuit court Judge Joe Donald to overcome.
But Walker has the authority and obligation under the state constitution to fill vacancies on the state courts as he sees fit. He said he selected the candidate he believes fills the requirements of the court.
“I want someone who understands the law and most importantly I want someone on the judiciary who upholds the constitution of this country and the state,” Walker said in a statement.
Bradley is highly qualified for the position, the first Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to have served as an intermediate appellate court judge and a circuit court judge.
Walker’s predecessor, Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, appointed the ultra-liberal Louis Butler to the court in August 2004. Butler had unsuccessfully campaigned in 2000 for the seat held by then-incumbent Supreme Court Justice Diane Sykes, whom GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested would be a good replacement for Scalia.
Obama, too, will nominate the person who aligns more with his reading of the constitution — also known as a liberal. Exhibit A: Sonia Sotomayor. Exhibit B: Elena Kagan.
But Ross, One Wisconsin Now’s mouth, sees only faulty logic in Republican Johnson’s call to let the American people “decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate.”
Ross, it seems, is champing at the bit to see a left-wing judicial activist named to the Supreme Court. He seemed to relish Scalia’s passing in a tweet over the weekend.
“If you take a lifetime appointment and do horrible things, you can’t fault people who are pleased that the term of office has expired,” Ross tweeted.
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