Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel supports anti-worker laws

Brad Schimel, a Republican former Wisconsin attorney general and a current Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, is running for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. After pledging never to prejudge a case, Schimel has repeatedly warned that his opponent in the race, Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, would rule against Act 10, the Wisconsin law that curtailed public sector unions’ right to bargain and prohibited them from deducting dues from workers’ paychecks, and against the state’s “right-to-work” law that allows employees to avoid joining or contributing to unions, even if those unions represent them in their workplaces, which is not currently being challenged.

The election is set for April 1, 2025.

“We need to restore confidence in the people of Wisconsin that the justice system will be fair and impartial,” Schimel said at his campaign kickoff in November 2023, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. “I will be honest about my principles, but will never prejudge a case and will never put my views above the law.”

Schimel’s campaign website contradicts that, however, warning that “If the left wins in April they will … eliminate school choice … overturn Right to Work, remove voter ID,” and make other judicial decisions apparently opposite Schimel’s views.

Wisconsin’s “right-to-work” law was enacted in 2015. Business interests typically back “right-to-work” laws as diminished collective bargaining power typically leads to lower wages and benefits for all workers; unions oppose them as harmful. 

After Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost ruled in December 2024 that Act 10 was unconstitutional because it exempted some public safety workers, including police and firefighters, Schimel’s campaign denounced the ruling in a press release, according to Fox 6 Milwaukee.

The campaign made it clear that Schimel would overturn the decision if it came before him on the Supreme Court: “Today’s decision by a Dane County judge is just the latest instance of the Left using the justice system to satisfy their donors and dismantle laws they don’t like. … The Left will stop at nothing to impose their partisan agenda and raise your taxes; their judges are in on it, too. Sending Brad Schimel to the Wisconsin Supreme Court is the only way to stop the madness and return the power to the people.”

Frost’s ruling is on hold while Republicans in the Legislature appeal it and is expected to eventually reach the state Supreme Court.

John Havlicek is a former La Crosse Education Association president and a high school Spanish teacher in La Crosse, where he has been an educator for nearly 30 years. In a phone interview, he said Act 10 significantly reduced teacher salaries and benefits, which has had devastating effects on teacher recruitment and retention. “When I got hired, when they posted for a high school English job, they might have had 300 applicants. They might have interviewed 15 and then called five back for a second interview. Now we might have two applicants or five applicants. … It’s made it really hard to recruit.”

“It has not helped the average working person in Wisconsin at all,” Dan Bukiewicz, the president of the Milwaukee Building Trades union, told the Wisconsin Independent. “It’s just workers in general, because as the represented folks go, usually the nonrepresenteds get about the same type raise and everything like that.” He said that since Act 10 became law, more people are choosing to work in the private sector: “You’re seeing more and more municipalities and government entities looking for these types of workers to maintain their building assets, and these workers aren’t there. Why would they want to go there and work for less?” 

Wisconsin’s “right-to-work” law has “been damaging to everybody,” Havlicek said. “It was kind of this double whammy, because not only does the person teaching next to me not have to pay union dues and they still get the benefit of whatever it is that we are able to accomplish, then they severely restricted what it is we can accomplish.”

As attorney general, Schimel defended both Act 10 and the “right-to-work” law as constitutional.

“He’s given his hot takes on cases headed to the Supreme Court based on what he reads in the newspapers,” Crawford said at a campaign event in January, according to the Capital Times. “That is actually a violation of our state judicial code, and it’s not something you’ll hear me engaging in.”

Schimel’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this story. Schimel’s communications director told the Capital Times, however, that Crawford was “projecting to distract voters from her history as the attorney who tried to strike down Act 10” and “doesn’t even pretend to be impartial.” As an attorney, Crawford worked on a 2011 challenge to the law, but she has had no involvement in the current case.

Bukiewicz said Schimel’s vocal defense of anti-labor laws makes him doubt workers would get a fair shake should their issues come before him: “I don’t think it’s very hard to figure out what his intentions would be if a court case came up to overturn Act 10.”

In 2023, after liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Republican lawmakers accused her of having improperly prejudged cases relating to abortion rights and gerrymandering and threatened to impeach her if she took part in those cases. Protasiewicz denied any bias, writing: “I will set aside my opinions and decide cases based on the law. There will surely be many cases in which I reach results that I personally dislike. That is what it means to be a judge.”

“If there’s any semblance of honor on the state Supreme Court left,” Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in an August 2023 interview, according to Wisconsin Public Radio, “you cannot have a person who runs for the court prejudging a case and being open about it, and then acting on the case as if you’re an impartial observer.”

Vos’ office did not respond to an inquiry for this story.

This story was originally published by The Wisconsin Independent.