This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/what-has-this-court-wrought/
2025 | Week of March 24 | Radio Transcript #1611
Next Tuesday, April 1, Wisconsin will have one of the most consequential elections ever. Wisconsin voters will select a replacement for retiring Wisconsin Supreme Court liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Our choices are between Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford, considered a liberal, and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel, who has a conservative reputation. The court has had a 4-3 liberal majority since late 2023 when Janet Protasiewicz was seated; thus, if Crawford wins, the court will remain 4-3 liberal. If Schimel wins, the court will flip to a 4-3 conservative majority.
Significant cases dealing with religious freedom, pro-life laws, election integrity, and more have reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court within the past eighteen months since the court flipped to a liberal majority.
In 2016, Wisconsin Catholic Charities became entangled in a legal mess when it applied to the state to be exempt from having to pay taxes into the state’s unemployment system, as most religious organizations tend to be exempt from such state laws across the nation, as is the case, typically, here in the Badger State. However, the Charities’ exemption application was rejected by the state of Wisconsin on the grounds that Catholic Charities’ activities–like assisting the elderly, disabled, and low-income individuals–were not religious per se.
The case eventually landed at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Court stunningly ruled in favor of the state in what many critics judged to be a clear judicial activist decision. The decision was 4-3 with the liberal majority ruling against Catholic Charities, essentially saying that the state will determine what constitutes religious activity for religious organizations and ministries—a frightening thought, to say the least.
The Court is also heavily involved in the future of preborn lives in Wisconsin. When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court in June 2022, Wisconsin’s pre-existing law banning abortions resumed, immediately saving the lives of babies here. Wisconsin’s liberal Attorney General Josh Kaul then challenged that pre-Roe law; and this past November, the state supreme court held oral arguments on this case, following a Dane County judge wrongly determining that the statute doesn’t apply to abortions but rather to infanticide.
We are still awaiting a ruling on this case, but linked to it is a request from AG Kaul for the court to determine if there is a so-called right to abortion in our state constitution. The court has also accepted a case from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin seeking the same constitutional outcome. Of note is that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Advocates have endorsed Susan Crawford in this race.
The state Supreme Court also has had and will likely continue to have an enormous impact on our state elections. Last year, the court was complicit in new state legislative maps being ordered prior to the fall 2024 election. These maps favored Democrats, which resulted in Republicans having their majorities in both the Assembly and the Senate significantly narrowed. It is highly likely, especially if the liberal candidate wins this spring, that the court will consider a case that would result in new congressional district maps. Should such maps go into play for the 2026 mid-term elections, they could result in outcomes that flip control of the US House from conservative to liberal, thereby thwarting President Trump’s agenda.
In 2022, the then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court banned ballot drop boxes on the heels of widespread allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 elections. Then, in 2024 –under a liberal majority–the Court reversed its 2022 decision just one month ahead of Wisconsin’s August primary election, saying the earlier ruling was “unsound in principle.” Once again, the vote was 4-3, with the liberals voting in unison.
Just last month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued another key decision on election integrity, ruling that “voter vans”–mobile units that traveled around the city of Racine issuing absentee ballots on the spot ahead of the 2022 elections–were indeed acceptable. Many believe these voting vans are an egregious abuse of the law. Hardly surprising, the liberal justices prevailed with a 4-3 vote.
Clearly, who is on the Wisconsin Supreme Court matters. Wisconsin voters have the crucial opportunity to significantly impact the future of religious freedom, pro-life laws, election integrity, and more by showing up to the ballot box on April 1.
For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Sierra John