WI Supreme Court Candidate Judge Brian Hagedorn

submitted by Andrea Kaminski; photo by Mark Moody

Judge Brian Hagedorn with Steve Walters

On Wednesday, March 27, Steve Walters, Senior Producer at WisconsinEye, moderated a Question and Answer session with Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brian Hagedorn, a Court of Appeals judge who serves in the court’s Waukesha-based District II. While both Supreme Court candidates were invited to speak, Judge Lisa Neubauer had another commitment and declined Rotary’s invitation. Per our policy on inviting candidates to speak (see our March 8 newsletter for the policy), a person from Neubauer’s campaign was invited to attend and distribute campaign materials in the back of the room.

Rotary members were invited prior to the program to submit questions for Judge Hagedorn, and these were passed on to Walters for consideration. In addition to providing an opening and closing statement, Hagedorn responded to the following questions, including some that referred to his comments at a recent Milwaukee Press Club forum:

1. You quoted Alexander Hamilton who said the judiciary should be the “least dangerous” branch of government, and then you said, “That’s not really where we are at nowadays.” Please explain what you meant by that.
2. In several forums you have asked Judge Neubauer to cite specific examples where your personal beliefs influenced an opinion you wrote. At one event she said you “acted on your beliefs” by starting a school with a code or mission statement that discriminates. You have said there has been a “lot of misreporting” on the school, so please set the record straight.
3. Given your blog statements on same-sex marriage and bestiality when you were a law school student, how you would convince members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters to vote for you?
4. Wisconsin Supreme Court Rule 60.03 governs the behavior of all Wisconsin judges and requires a judge to avoid the appearance of impropriety at all times, whether on the bench or off, as well as the appearance of impropriety as judged from the standpoint of a reasonable person. Given your previous statements about marriage equality and Planned Parenthood, can those appearing before you on any case involving either of those groups see you as impartial?
5. You have said of your opponent, “I don’t have a problem with people having any kind of political background coming onto the court [but] she (Neubauer) has far more political background than I do.” Please explain what you meant by that.
6. About your time working for Governor Walker, you have said, “I didn’t do politics. I did law. I was his lawyer. I didn’t make any decisions.” But you participated in the drafting of Act 10, restricting the role of public unions, as well as Act 2, making it more difficult to sue nursing homes for negligence or malpractice. If matters related to either of these or other laws you had a part in drafting were to come before the court, would you recuse yourself?
7. Do you consider these cases to be settled law: Roe v. Wade, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing same sex marriage, and the Washington, DC, case affirming individual gun ownership as a 2nd Amendment right?
8. How would you approach the constitutional question of “first impression”?
9. If ethical complaints are filed against a Supreme Court justice, and all or most of the justices recuse themselves from the matter, what should happen to that complaint?
10. You have said that one of the biggest challenges for the courts is fighting the opioid crisis. Explain how the Supreme Court can address that problem.

To hear Hagedorn’s answers in his own words, and to find other candidate interviews, go to Wisconsin Eye’s coverage on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch the video here.