Yesterday, Karoli wrote about one of the most recent and most egregious of these when Walker appointed the son of Michael Grebe, one of Walker's dark money masters, to the Wisconsin University Board of Regents.
Now, Walker is starting to fill judicial vacancies with political appointees and cronies.
The first of these was Walker's appointment of Rebecca Bradley to serve on the District 1 Court of Appeals.
It should be noted that Bradley served for only two years at Children's Court and didn't handle all of the duties of that assignment. Obviously, Walker didn't appoint her for her experience.
So why her?
Well, she is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA). One of the main issues for the RNLA is voter suppression, which has been shown to be targeting young minorities the most. As written by the Republicans, the voter suppression laws would be the most restrictive in the nation. Bradley's RNLA responded with inflammatory, irresponsible and baseless rhetoric, saying opposition to the voter suppression law came from "the far left, anti-democracy and divisive campaign funded by George Soros."
Bradley also served as President of the Milwaukee Federalist Society. As I wrote during her one campaign:
As I had mentioned before, Bradley also did a stint as President of the Milwaukee Federalist Society - a fact that she is trying to scrub from her profiles. The Federalist Society is funded in part by the Bradley Foundation (cue Grebe again) and the issue this presents is best described by Tom Foley, aka Illusory Tenant:
The incumbent, Republican Scott Walker appointee Rebecca Bradley, describes herself as a "nonideological" member of the Federalist Society, which is an organization of malcontents and paranoid hysterics with law degrees that was founded on political ideology.
Kinda like being a Milwaukee Admiral but you don't play hockey.
It should also be noted that many political insiders expect that she is being fast-tracked for an appointment to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Walker's other politically appointed judge is Attorney Jim Troupis to Dane County Circuit Court:
Attorney Jim Troupis has been appointed to fill the seat of retiring Dane County Circuit Judge John C. Albert and will serve until August 2016. Troupis’ appointment comes seven weeks after a committee and group of advisers that vet judicial hopefuls rejected all four applicants for the job.
Those applicants were: state Assistant Attorney General Devra Ayala, state Assistant Public Defender David Klauser, criminal defense attorney John Hyland and Madison attorney and UW-Madison adjunct professor of law Nick Schweitzer.
Hyland, who said in his interview that he had signed the 2012 recall petition against Walker, plans to run for the seat next April and has formed a campaign committee.
Troupis was a partner at the Madison law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich before starting his own law firm in 2010. He worked with Republican legislators during their redistricting of the state following the 2010 census and also represented state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser in the recount of the 2011 election.
Besides hiring Troupis for drawing up the Republicans' gerrymandering scheme, and the subsequent legal battle, Walker also hired Troupis to defend his Act 10, the introduction of right to work to Wisconsin. And yes, Troupis got paid very well for these things.
In Walker's Wisconsin, Lady Justice is still blind, but only because Walker poked her eyes out.
