Judicial Elections Are Rotten, Political, Wealthy Affairs — See Wisconsin
Right-Wing Karen With D.C. Money Eyes Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat
The U.S. court system is troubled and that is understated. It is also not fun to engage with the court system, and for Black people in the U.S. it’s also often a forced engagement. Are you aware of the school-to-prison pipeline, you should be.
However, in Wisconsin, as in 30-some-other deranged states, citizens, like two or three, go to the polls to fill the state court system, including its Supreme Court, often with unqualified nitwits harboring nasty political agendas.
In Wisconsin the tiny and way too powerful Supreme Court is seeking to fill an open seat on the 4–3 court, which is currently controlled by right-wing justices mired in the 1950s. The state’s heavy-handed high court will likely hear a challenge from the Democratic Governor Tony Evers to the state’s way-old ban on abortion care.
So what does this mean and is it all that important.
First you should know that electing judges injects politics into the affair, meaning tons of money, and then justices beholden to their financial supporters. Read here for more on why judicial elections create political fiefdoms, not independent judiciaries.
Also the people who will vote in judicial elections are an exclusive bunch — 90.9 percent of them are white, wealthy, well-educated, and love politics. Not many people vote in judicial elections — they are trying to live their lives in an unforgiving economic setup and believe judges are appointed by their state representatives. Many people in Wisconsin also are deterred from voting — Black people, people mired in poverty, students, and the elderly. All these people are expected NOT to show up for judicial elections.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court political affair — two neoliberal candidates and two right-wing, law-and-order-bootlicking candidates running for an open seat. If the neoliberal wins, the Wisconsin Supreme Court becomes a 4–4 milquetoast affair. If the right-wing, Trump-humping candidate wins, conservatives have 5–3 stranglehold on the state’s high court.
If you take in some of the press here — Journal Sentinel, the old, grumpy, white, dullard from the Urban Milwaukee, local TV and radio broadcasts, you’ll learn the writers and pundits, all white, are consumed with the political battles and “shocked” at how partisan they are.
They are feigning shock because their editors demand it, or they and their editors are dullards. Judicial elections are political affairs that 30 some other states play around into the great detriment of the populace. For example, boatloads of money are being spent on propelling mediocre to rotten-as-hell “judges” to the highest court in Wisconsin. Partisan groups are supporting all the candidates, and Wisconsin’s did not start conducting judicial elections yesterday.
In Wisconsin you have a Karen-on-steroids candidate in Jennifer Dorow, a sitting judge in Waukesha County.
Judge Dorow, an anti-abortion, Christian nationalist freak, gained state fame during a murder trial in which she performed her most ridiculous Karen-routines in a robe with a gavel, and security guards protecting her ass. The AP referred to her as the “Parade Crash Judge,” when she announced her intention to run for the open seat.
As Susan Rinkunas reports for Jezebel, Dorow’s husband, Brian, is a former cop and outlandish gun enthusiast. The Dorows love fetuses as much as they love guns, and the death penalty.
Indeed the right-wing loons, as Jezebel reports and Dorow bragged about before a group of Wisconsin RNC Karens, are building a range for gun practice, weddings, and lounging with guns.
According to local news reports, Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow, a conservative candidate, and her husband Brian, are developing an indoor gun range that would not only host weddings and other events, but would also serve alcohol. The couple requested a Class B liquor license to sell beer and wine to members and guests in the “clubhouse.” The range would also sell firearms and accessories on-site. The Dorows said in city documents that they devised an ‘alcohol safety policy’ consisting of hand stamps to prevent members from entering the shooting range after drinking and a breathalyzer to be used on ‘suspicious individuals.’
The other candidates in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race are not as outlandishly rightwing as Jennifer (Karen) Dorow.
The thing is a national group called the Federalist Society has about as much money as the Koch brothers, which have more money than God. The Federalist Society, headed by Leonard Leo, has worked since the Reagan administration to remake the federal courts into the rightwing bastions they are today. His group is doing the same thing on the local level — making state court systems right-wing strongholds.
The Federalist Society and other Washington, D.C. based organizations are going to outspend everyone to ensure the Wisconsin Supreme Court stays right-wing forever.
I’ve already noted who will vote in this election — white wealthy neoliberals and white, more wealthy, Republicans. Judicial elections are geared for white people who love the courts and have never experienced them in the way Black people have or poor, white people have for that matter. A lot of people will not have the day off either for voting. It’s a rigged setup in so many ways.
I’m new to Milwaukee, but I doubt I’m rushing to the DMV for a drivers’ license, certainly not for a filthy judicial election. This is a super wealthy affair — let’s hope the wealthy in Wisconsin are not as right-wing loony as Karen Dorrow.
