From Steve Fischer

Argyle

To the Editor: 

“To Save Democracy” and “Extremist”.  These are two terms we’ve been hearing a lot during this campaign for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Let’s explore this a bit and then you decide with your vote.

In Wisconsin, the legislators, Senate and Assembly, write and pass the laws as our elected representatives. The governor signs them into law if he has no qualms with them. Finally, the judges determine whether the new law is in line with our state and federal constitutions. If so, then the adjudicate cases based on these laws. This is how our democracy operates.

The judge being called the “extremist”, Dan Kelly, seems to agree with this form of democracy. The liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz does not. She has already made it known that she plans to “legislate from the bench”, thus bypassing our elected representatives in the legislature. Saving Democracy?

Judges are supposed to dispense the law to protect the citizens of the state. This includes proper sentencing of convicted criminals to jail time for the crime committed. Judge Janet apparently doesn’t believe in this as she and the other circuit court judges and commissioners in the Milwaukee area refuse to put criminals in jail. Instead she releases them either with low cash bail or probation. Milwaukee has suffered from this policy with an ever increasing crime rate mostly from repeat offenders. Judge Janet has done this so often she was given the nickname “No Jail Janet”.

Judge Janet has also stated that she can’t wait to redesign our congressional district maps to combat gerrymandering. Our state constitution requires the legislature — a political body — to establish the legislative districts in the state. Nothing in the constitution empowers the supreme court to second guess or to vest them the power to enact new maps. Judge Janet’s plan is to do her own gerrymandering, taking large pockets of voters from liberal cities and inserting them into more rural, conservative districts. This would basically silence the representation of the more rural areas of the state. So much for her protecting democracy.

Tell the liberal Judge from Milwaukee no! We don’t need a Supreme Court justice who wants to bypass our constitution, legislate from the bench and turn our legal system on its head with no cash bail or jail time for criminals.