More of the Same Coming to Supreme Court

I have amazing powers of prediction. I can tell you who the next two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices will be.

Next month Chris Taylor will defeat Maria Lazar by about ten points. Then a year from now Clark County Circuit Court Judge Lyndsey Brunette will replace Annette Ziegler, who announced her retirement yesterday.

Here’s how it works. Two years ago Taylor laid down her claim to a seat on the court by announcing a run, then backing out in favor of the Democrat’s chosen candidate Susan Crawford. But it didn’t take much winking and nodding to understand that all other candidates were to back off and let Taylor have what is essentially, though not officially, the Democratic nomination for the next court seat.

Sure enough, Crawford won and took her seat in August. Then when Justice Rebecca Bradley announced her own retirement last year, Brunette announced a feint of a campaign, knowing that Taylor had already claimed the seat. When Taylor officially entered the race, Brunette got out, but she had laid down her own marker. The next seat would be hers.

Ziegler hadn’t finished her announcement yesterday by the time Brunette jumped in the race to succeed her.

When Brunette deferred to Taylor she told WisPolitics.com last May that 2026 was “not the best time to pursue a seat on the state’s highest court. I believe strongly that the future holds new chances to lead and serve — and I’ll be ready when the time comes.”

Let me translate. She actually said, “I know this is Chris’ turn, but the next one is mine.”

Now, I don’t know to what extent, if any, that there is an actual spoken agreement here. I don’t know that the liberal justices and Democratic power brokers get together and pick the next candidates years in advance. It might not have to be that overt.

But the message is clear: once again in 2027, just as this year and in the previous cycles, there will be no meaningful choice. By that time there will be five partisan liberals on the court and Brunette will run promising to be the sixth. By August of 2027 there will be only one conservative, Brian Hagedon, among the seven justices.

Of course, Republicans will nominate someone to run against Brunette, but it won’t matter. Liberal Democrats now own these seats. Two things happened. First, liberals became super-charged about these court races when they figured out that they weren’t going to take back the legislature any time soon, but they could legislate through the court. Then even the supercharger went into overdrive after Roe was overturned. The second thing that happened is that the demographics switched. It’s voters with more years of education who show up to vote in spring elections. Those used to be Republicans, but now they’re Democrats. The Republicans are now the blue collar party while the Democrats are the college-educated.

What voters don’t get out of all this (essential if not explicit) back room dealing is a choice worth having. We can pick between a liberal Democratic partisan or a conservative Republican partisan. But we don’t get offered anyone who is truly nonpartisan and won’t arrive at the court with an ideological agenda.

Still more reason to stop electing and start appointing justices.