In Wisconsin Court Race, Only Schimel Will Protect Election Laws
On April 1, Wisconsin voters will have the opportunity to swing the balance of power in the state’s supreme court back to conservative strict constructionists. Voters will choose between left-wing Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel to replace leftist Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. The left-leaning justices currently hold a 4–3 seat advantage.
Crawford’s opposition to Wisconsin’s photo ID requirements to vote should disqualify her as a serious candidate. In addition to representing Planned Parenthood for expanded abortion access, she also represented the leftist League of Women Voters (LWV) against the state’s photo ID law. This signals she would legislate from the bench if elected. Schimel fought for the state’s photo ID law in court and credits it with helping President Donald Trump win the state.
State law mandates that no more than a single justice seat may be up for election per year to prevent electoral swings radically changing the court’s ideological makeup. The state’s partisan parity, however, means nearly every election swings the court ideologically. In 2023, left-leaning Justice Janet Protasiewicz won her seat to replace retiring conservative Justice Pat Roggensack thanks to pro-abortion groups mobilizing voters behind that single issue, giving leftists control of the court.
But Protasiewicz’s pro-abortion views came as a leftist package that included support for weakening election integrity laws. In 2022, the court ruled against allowing ballot drop boxes. With Protasiewicz seated, the justices heard a case on the issue again and reversed their prior decision. Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley, who wrote the dissenting opinion in the case allowing ballot drop boxes, noted that nothing changed except the politics of the court. The danger of this kind of politicized judicial system that leftists are pushing cheapens the duties and legitimacy of the state’s highest court, turning it into nothing more than an elitist branch of the legislature.
Crawford’s Record on Photo ID
Keeping the court in the left’s hands with Crawford would risk allowing it to trample the state’s separation of powers. If Crawford wants to repeal or replace the photo ID law, she should have run for state Senate.
In 2011, Crawford was one of three lawyers who challenged Act 23, the state’s voter law requiring photo ID. The then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected arguments that it was unconstitutional. Subsequent litigation delayed the law’s implementation until the 2016 election after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
In a 2016 debate on the issue, Crawford argued that the three days the law gives voters to produce a valid photo ID for their provisional ballots is insufficient. She said the state should instead allow voters to sign an affidavit if they lack photo ID. But if the law allowed this, what would be the purpose of requiring photo ID? Everyone could “forget” their ID at home if they wanted, and it would exponentially increase the duties of election officials. This would only expand opportunities for and accusations of sloppiness and fraud.
Crawford referred to Wisconsin’s voter ID laws as “draconian” when she ran for her current seat in 2018. But the state allows voters to show one of seven forms of photo ID: A state driver’s license, a U.S. passport, a certificate of naturalization, a tribal ID, a student ID card, a military ID card, or a separate state ID card issued specifically for voting. Those showing student IDs merely have to provide additional proof they are enrolled at a Wisconsin university.
The overwhelming majority of the public does not share the concern of leftists like Crawford that requiring photo ID to vote would disenfranchise vast swaths of minorities — including minorities themselves. Polling shows 80 percent of the general public and 60 percent of registered Democrats support showing photo ID to vote. Gallup found this includes 77 percent of non-white voters.
On January 13, the Republican Senate sought to preemptively protect Wisconsin’s photo ID requirement to vote by sending the matter to voters on the April ballot as a constitutional amendment. Even if it passes, Wisconsin’s voters should not have to continually amend their constitution to preempt activist judges like Crawford from playing legislator. So long as social justice activism clouds leftists’ understanding of the meaning of a constitutional republic and separation of powers, the public cannot trust them to stay in their lane when tasked with objectively interpreting laws’ constitutionality.
Jacob Grandstaff is an investigative researcher for Restoration News focused on election integrity.
" Conservative News Daily does not always share or support the views and opinions expressed here; they are just those of the writer."
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