A Most Troubling Opinion: Rebecca Bradley Believes Candidates for Supreme Court Ought to Be Able to Lie in Campaign Ads

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin State Journal today reported on an article by Gov. Scott Walker’s crony pick for the state Supreme Court, Rebecca Bradley, in which she attacked the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee effort to keep candidates from producing, or benefitting from others, misleading and underhanded campaign advertising.

“Rebecca Bradley put it in writing she believes candidates for the Supreme Court like herself ought to be able to lie in their campaign advertising,” commented One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “Much like her political patron Scott Walker, clearly Rebecca Bradley will do or say anything to try to win an election.”

In a 2008 article, Bradley and three fellow attorneys claimed efforts to discourage judicial candidates from running false or misleading ads was an attack on free speech and could, “… effectively prevent Wisconsin voters from obtaining the fullest information possible …”

Just weeks after the article was published, then Supreme Court candidate Michael Gableman ran an outrageously racist and misleading television ad against his opponent, resulting in ethics charges that he violated the Judicial Code of Conduct with his actions.

The Capital Times reported on another column penned by Bradley in which she shared her extreme right-wing views on reproductive health care, equating birth control with murder and supporting legislation that would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to fill a legal prescription for birth control.

Ross noted that Bradley also has an adversarial relationship with the state open records law, in addition to her animus to the truth and birth control. Only after being confronted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did Bradley respond to an open records request from One Wisconsin Now submitted in September. Even more outrageous, her response to a request for copies of her official calendar included months and months of blank calendar pages. Confronted again by the media for her actions Bradley admitted that, after charging One Wisconsin Now an hourly rate of over $66 and copying fees, she did not have access to her actual calendars.

He concluded, “It’s a simple issue of trust: How can you believe someone who writes that it’s okay to lie?”