High court candidates clash at forum

They discuss racial biases, judicial recusals

Candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw plenty of verbal elbows in Milwaukee on Monday, hoping to box out one of their group in a primary election this month.

The early skirmishes suggest there’ll be plenty of March madness before the general ballot April 3, to carry a basketball metaphor a bit out of bounds.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet, Sauk County Circuit Judge Michael Screnock and Madison attorney Tim Burns appeared at a luncheon forum hosted by the Milwaukee Bar Association.

If conservatives called central casting for a judicial candidate, they might have gotten Screnock. He said he believes in the rule of law, original interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and

that judges shouldn’t legislate from the bench.

Burns has pegged himself as an unabashed progressive.

“The country is on a knife’s edge,” he told the audience of mostly lawyers and judges. “Concentrated corporate wealth has weakened democracy.”

He said the myth of nonpartisan judges has finally exploded, and so it’s important that voters know judicial candidates’ politics.

“Let’s stop kidding ourselves,” he said. “It has allowed the right wing to take over the judiciary.”

Dallet called herself the only candidate with Wisconsin values and said Burns has taken positions on issues likely to come before the court.

“I get that he doesn’t understand that; he’s not a judge,” Dallet said.

Dallet contended that despite Burns’ claim of candor, he hasn’t fully identified his clients, or how many cases he’s handled in Wisconsin courts. She’s dubious he would follow the law when it would direct an outcome he doesn’t like.

“He’ll do whatever he thinks democracy dictates,” she said, “But we as courts are limited.”

Even as Dallet is running TV spots featuring President Donald Trump and saying our rights are under attack, and sharply criticizing the current court’s handling of the John Doe II investigation, Burns tried to portray her as a lawand-order conservative.

He cited three specific cases in which Dallet made evidentiary rulings in favor of police against African-American defendants. She noted the U.S. Supreme Court took her side, 8-1, on one of the issues in a related case.

All three candidates agreed there is some implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system. Dallet cited her work training other judges about how to recognize and avoid it. Screnock said sometimes people come to his court looking for bias, whether it’s there or not. Burns cited the Dallet evidentiary rulings on searches.

Dallet was very critical of the Supreme Court’s refusal to adopt a rule about when justices should recuse themselves from cases, and particularly of its vote to shut down the John Doe II investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

Screnock said he did not support a petition from former judges to require justices’ recusal from any case in which a party has donated $10,000 or more to their campaign, citing the First Amendment concern. People shouldn’t have their ability to participate in elections “stifled” over an arbitrary limit on contributions.

The candidates’ favorite U.S. Supreme Court justices will be seen by some as shorthand insight to the approach they might take to the job. Screnock picked the late conservative icon Antonin Scalia; Burns said Thurgood Marshall, who once said, “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up”; and Dallet mentioned two women — Sandra Day O’Connor, a conservative, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a member of the current court’s liberal wing.

Screnock, who was appointed to his current seat by Gov. Scott Walker in 2015, announced his run for Supreme Court in June when Justice Michael Gableman said he wouldn’t seek another term. Screnock soon drew the backing of the court’s conservatives. including justice Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly.

Before his appointment, Screnock was a member of the Micheal Best & Friedrich law firm, where he helped defend Act 10, the 2011 law promoted by Gov. Scott Walker that curtailed collective bargaining for most public worker unions. Before law school, Screnock spent several years working in municipal governments in Wisconsin.

Dallet has spent her entire career in the Milwaukee County courthouse, 11 years as a prosecutor, one as a court commissioner and more than nine as a judge.

Burns specializes in business insurance law as a partner at Perkins Coie law firm.

At the end of 2017, Dallet’s campaign held a big financial edge, nearly $496,000 (including a $200,000 loan to her own campaign), to just under $260,000 for Burns and about $104,000 for Screnock.

Two of three will survive the Feb. 20 primary and move on to the April 3 general election.