Restoring objectivity

A critically important and consequential election is quickly approaching. In less than one month, Wisconsin will decide the future of its justice system. I have raised my family here and built my life right here in Wisconsin, and I am fighting tooth and nail to ensure that we do not lose our state to lawlessness and corruption. I am running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to restore objectivity and humility to our judicial system.

This election will decide whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court maintains the current liberal majority or strikes an ideological balance that ensures objectivity and true impartiality. The current majority is using the Court as a political weapon, going through a checklist of cases that deliver results to partisan interests.

My opponent is the left's hand-picked choice to join them to continue to deliver liberal decisions for liberal friends and undo settled law. That is a very dangerous game to play with our justice system. As a judge, you should never enter a courtroom pre-determining the outcome – that is judicial activism. Under the current liberal majority, many cases are decided before they are presented, and personal political agendas have replaced the oath of objectivity. If the justice system fails because it cannot be objective, then one of the three legs of our constitutional republic is gone. You know what happens to a two-legged stool.

I am running to prevent that because I believe Wisconsin is worth saving. You deserve a justice that will look at the facts of a case and rule based on what the law says — not what the justice wants it to be. I have spent 35 years as a public servant working in our justice system dedicated to enforcing our law, regardless of my personal beliefs. In court, we ask citizen jurors to set aside personal beliefs, opinions, and prejudices; why should we not expect the same of justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court?

At a young age, my parents taught me to leave things better than I found them. It is the very reason I got into public service and have stayed in it for 35 years. As a front-line prosecutor, attorney general, and judge, I have worked to defend victims, protect our communities, and deliver justice for families. On the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I will continue to work hard to make it better than the way I have found it, not by making policy, but by ensuring the law is stable and predictable. On April 1, I humbly ask for your vote to restore fairness and save Wisconsin.

Brad Schimel is a candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice.