Rebecca Bradley
2015 - Present
2026
9
Rebecca Bradley is a judge of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She assumed office on October 12, 2015. Her current term ends on July 31, 2026.
Bradley first became a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court through gubernatorial appointment. She was first appointed to the court by Governor Scott Walker (R) after the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks in September 2015. Bradley won election to a full term in 2016, defeating JoAnne Kloppenburg.[1] To read more about judicial selection in Wisconsin, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Bradley received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Bradley earned her undergraduate degree in 1993 from Marquette University and her J.D. in 1996 from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Before joining the state supreme court, Bradley was a judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals District I from May 2015 to October 2015. Bradley was also a judge of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court from 2012 to 2015. Before that, she was a business litigator with the law firm of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek.[4][5]
Elections
2016
- See also: Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, 2016
On September 17, 2015, Bradley announced a run for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the 2016 election. Judges JoAnne Kloppenburg and Joe Donald previously entered the race for the seat of Justice N. Patrick Crooks, who had planned to retire but died on September 21, 2015.[6] Bradley announced her run before being appointed to the seat the following month.
Bradley and Kloppenburg defeated Donald in the February primary. Bradley went on to defeat Kloppenburg in the general election on April 5, 2016. The race had the highest voter turnout for a supreme court race in Wisconsin state history, with over 1.9 million votes cast.[7]
General election results
| Wisconsin Supreme Court, Rebecca Bradley's Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Rebecca Bradley Incumbent |
52.35% | 1,024,892 |
| JoAnne Kloppenburg | 47.47% | 929,377 |
| Write-in votes | 0.19% | 3,678 |
| Total Votes (100% Reporting) | 1,957,947 | |
| Source: Wisconsin Government Accountability Board Official Results | ||
Primary results
The primary election was held February 16, 2016.
| Primary election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ideology[8] | Candidate | Percentage | Votes | |
| Liberal | Martin Joseph Donald | 12.1% | 68,746 | |
| Liberal | JoAnne Kloppenburg |
43.2% | 244,729 | |
| Conservative | Rebecca Bradley |
44.7% | 252,932 | |
| Vote Total: | 566,407 | |||
3474 of 3474 precincts reporting
Source: Wisconsin Government Accountability Board Official Results
2015
Governor Scott Walker (R) appointed Bradley to fill the vacancy on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals District I created by the death of Judge Ralph Adam Fine in May 2015.
2013
- See also: Wisconsin judicial elections, 2013
Bradley retained her position on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2013, defeating attorney Gilbert Urfer in the February 19 primary with 59 percent of the vote and Janet Claire Protasiewicz in the April 2 general election with 53 percent of the vote.[9]
2012
Governor Scott Walker (R) appointed Bradley to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court to replace Judge Thomas Donegan, who retired on November 30, 2012.[4][5]
Political contributions
According to publicly available campaign finance records, Bradley has donated to Republican Governor Scott Walker as well as judicial candidates running in nonpartisan elections.[10]
| Year | Race | Candidate | Contribution | Won/Lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Governor of Wisconsin | Scott Walker (R) | $750 | Won |
| 2011 | Wisconsin Supreme Court | David T. Prosser | $30 | Won |
| 2012 | Milwaukee County Circuit Court | Rebecca Bradley (self) | $15,000 | Won |
| 2012 | Governor of Wisconsin | Scott Walker (R) | $750 | Won |
| 2012 | Milwaukee County Circuit Court | Nelson W. Phillips, III | $100 | Lost |
| 2016 | N/A | Wisconsin Republican Party* | $41,857 | N/A |
- The donation to the Wisconsin Republican Party came from Bradley's campaign committee, not from Bradley herself.
Political donors
The following includes the four organizations that donated the most to Bradley's campaigns to the Wisconsin Supreme Court according to publicly available campaign finance information.[10]
| Donor | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin Republican Party | $41,857 |
| Wisconsin Realtor's Association | $18,000 |
| Wisconsin Builder's Association | $2,000 |
| 1st district Republican Party of Wisconsin | $1,500 |
Endorsements and scorecards
- Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin[11]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Rebecca
Bradley
Wisconsin
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Bradley's campaign committee donated $69,176 to Republican candidates. The Wisconsin Republican Party contributed $41,857 to her campaign. The state was a Republican trifecta when she was elected.
Noteworthy cases
Wisconsin Supreme Court finds state legislative maps in violation of the state constitution (2023)
Justice Rebecca Bradley sided with the dissenting opinion in this case. In a 4-3 decision on Dec. 22, 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the state’s legislative maps violated the state constitution and ordered the state to draw new maps for the 2024 elections. The justice wrote the following in their majority opinion:[14]
| “ |
We hold that the contiguity requirements in Article IV, Sections 4 and 5 mean what they say: Wisconsin's state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory. The constitutional text and our precedent support this common-sense interpretation of contiguity. Because the current state legislative districts contain separate, detached territory and therefore violate the constitution's contiguity requirements, we enjoin the Wisconsin Elections Commission from using the current legislative maps in future elections ... Because we enjoin the current state legislative district maps from future use, remedial maps must be drawn prior to the 2024 elections.[15][16] |
” |
The original petitioners argued that Wisconsin’s legislative districts violated multiple provisions of the state constitution, including equal protection, freedom of speech and association, separation of powers, and contiguous legislative districts. The state's legislative maps were ordered to be enacted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April 2022 after the governor vetoed them and the state legislature failed to override that veto.[14]
Articles:
Wisconsin Supreme Court affirms agency authority to regulate state water resources (2021)
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on July 8 issued decisions in two environmental cases that had pitted the state legislature against the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in a disagreement over which government entity has the authority to regulate water pollution and irrigation practices. In both cases, the court held 4-2 that the DNR is authorized to restrict permits in order to protect the state’s water resources.[17][18][19]
The pair of cases, both initiated by Clean Wisconsin Inc. and Pleasant Lake Management District, centered on Wisconsin Act 21—a 2011 law that limits state agency authority by prohibiting state agencies from taking actions not specifically authorized by the state legislature.[17]
The first case concerned an administrative law judge's (ALJ) order that the DNR limit the size of a dairy herd causing nearby groundwater contamination. The DNR under then-Governor Scott Walker (R) did not enforce the ALJ’s directive, arguing that Act 21 prohibited the agency from carrying out the order.[17][18]
A Dane County Circuit Court judge in 2016 affirmed the DNR's authority to limit the size of the dairy herd to address water pollution. The DNR appealed the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The current DNR under Governor Tony Evers (D) changed its position and had since claimed regulatory authority in the case.[17][18]
The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the circuit court's decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Jill Karofsky stated, "we conclude that an agency may rely upon a grant of authority that is explicit but broad when undertaking agency action, and such an explicit but broad grant of authority complies with [Act 21]."[17][18]
In the second case, challengers sued the DNR seeking stricter enforcement of regulations regarding large-scale water withdrawals for irrigation. Challengers claimed that the agency failed to consider the cumulative negative impact on water levels in nearby lakes and streams when it issued permits for nine high-capacity wells. As in the previous case, the DNR argued that Act 21 prevented the agency from considering the cumulative impact of the new wells.[17][19]
The Wisconsin Supreme Court again affirmed the circuit court's decision in the case, holding that the DNR erroneously claimed that it lacked regulatory authority. Writing for the majority, Justice Rebecca Dallet stated, "The DNR's authority to consider the environmental effects of proposed high capacity wells, while broad, is nevertheless explicitly permitted by statute."[17][19]
Chief Justice Annette Ziegler joined Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky in both majority opinions. Justice Brian Hagedorn did not participate in the case.[17][18][19]
Justices Rebecca Bradley and Patience Roggensack dissented, arguing in part: “Elevating its environmental policy preferences over the legislature's prerogative to reclaim its constitutional authority, the majority distorts the plain language of [Act 21] to achieve its own ends."[17][18][19]
State supreme court judicial selection in Wisconsin
- See also: Judicial selection in Wisconsin
The seven justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court are elected in statewide nonpartisan elections. Judges serve ten-year terms, and to remain on the court, they must run for re-election after their term expires. Only one seat may be elected in any year, and more than two candidates for each seat must file to have a primary.[20][21]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- licensed to practice law in Wisconsin for a minimum of five years immediately prior to election or appointment[22]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote for a term of two years.
Vacancies
In the event of a vacancy on the court, the governor has the power and duty to appoint an individual to the vacancy. The governor screens judicial applicants using an advisory council on judicial selection. The council recommends three to five candidates to the governor, although the governor is not bound by their recommendations. The appointed justice must then stand for election in the first subsequent year in which no other justice's term expires.[21][20][23]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 12 WISN, "Bradley, Kloppenburg advance in state Supreme Court race," February 16, 2016
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Journal Sentinel, "Rebecca Bradley named circuit judge in Milwaukee," November 26, 2012
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Sun Prairie Star, "Walker appoints Bradley as new appeals court judge," May 9, 2015
- ↑ Bruce Vielmetti, Journal Sentinel, "Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice N. Patrick Crooks dies," September 21, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Blue Book 2017-2018, "Election results," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ This is a nonpartisan election, but where possible Ballotpedia draws on endorsements, court decisions, and other data to infer ideological affiliation.
- ↑ Journal Sentinel, "Rebecca Bradley, Janet Protasiewicz advance out of Branch 45 circuit court primary," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Follow the Money, "Rebecca Grassl Bradley," accessed July 8, 2016
- ↑ Green Bay Press-Gazette, "Construction group endorses Rebecca Bradley," March 28, 2016
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Democracy Docket, "Wisconsin Legislative Redistricting Challenge (Clarke)," accessed January 2, 2024
- ↑ Supreme Court of Wisconsin, "Case No. 2023AP1399-OA," accessed January 2, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 17.8 Wisconsin Public Radio, "Wisconsin Supreme Court Affirms DNR Authority To Restrict, Deny Farm Permits To Protect Water," July 8, 2021
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 Wisconsin Supreme Court, "Clean Wisconsin, Inc., Lynda Cochart, Amy Cochart, Roger DeJardin, Sandra Winnemueller and Chad Cochart v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources," July 8, 2021
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 Wisconsin Supreme Court, "Clean Wisconsin, Inc. and Pleasant Lake Management District v. Wisconsin Departement of Natural Resources," July 8, 2021
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed August 12, 2021
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Wisconsin State Legislature, "Wisconsin Constitution," accessed September 19, 2014 (Article VII, Section 4: pg.10) Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "section4" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "Wisconsin Constitution," accessed September 19, 2014 (Article VII, Section 24: pg.11)
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "8.50 - Special elections," accessed April 19, 2023
Federal courts:
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Wisconsin, Western District of Wisconsin • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Wisconsin, Western District of Wisconsin
State courts:
Wisconsin Supreme Court • Wisconsin Court of Appeals • Wisconsin Circuit Courts • Wisconsin Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Wisconsin • Wisconsin judicial elections • Judicial selection in Wisconsin
