Scott Walker on Wisconsin Supreme Court Election: ‘Everything’ Is on the Line

What’s at stake in the upcoming Wisconsin state supreme court race? “Everything,” former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker tells National Review in an interview. “In a word, it’s everything.”

What makes the April 4 election so consequential is that it’s the first opportunity for progressives to gain a majority on the court in many years. Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee judge and self-described “progressive” who advanced to the April 4 runoff election against former state supreme court justice Dan Kelly, is openly campaigning as a judicial activist. “The appeal she and her allies are making is this is their chance to undo everything that we’ve done over the past dozen years or so,” says Walker. And that’s not much of an exaggeration: As the New York Times reported in January, “Judge Protasiewicz argued that abortion should be ‘a woman’s right to choose’; said that Governor Scott Walker’s 2011 law effectively ending collective-bargaining rights for most public employees was unconstitutional; and predicted that, if she won, the court would take up a case seeking to invalidate the Republican-drawn state legislative and congressional maps put in place last year.”

About the Author

John McCormack

John McCormack is a former Washington correspondent for National Review and was a fellow at the National Review Institute.

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What’s at stake in the upcoming Wisconsin state supreme court race? “Everything,” former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker tells National Review in an interview. “In a word, it’s everything.”

What makes the April 4 election so consequential is that it’s the first opportunity for progressives to gain a majority on the court in many years. Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee judge and self-described “progressive” who advanced to the April 4 runoff election against former state supreme court justice Dan Kelly, is openly campaigning as a judicial activist. “The appeal she and her allies are making is this is their chance to undo everything that we’ve done over the past dozen years or so,” says Walker. And that’s not much of an exaggeration: As the New York Times reported in January, “Judge Protasiewicz argued that abortion should be ‘a woman’s right to choose’; said that Governor Scott Walker’s 2011 law effectively ending collective-bargaining rights for most public employees was unconstitutional; and predicted that, if she won, the court would take up a case seeking to invalidate the Republican-drawn state legislative and congressional maps put in place last year.”