Letter to the Editor: Dan Kelly Is Not Right for Our Supreme Court

In 2016, Scott Walker appointed Dan Kelly – a lawyer with no judicial experience – to the Supreme Court. Kelly is not a conservative. He is a libertarian, as is the organization – the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty – that he served as a legal adviser before his appointment. 

As a justice, he has sided with that organization in a number of cases, including supporting the voter-registration purge and voter-ID law, declaring an MATC labor agreement illegal, upholding the lame-duck session curtailing the powers of the governor and the attorney general, challenging the Federal Election Commission’s limit on individual campaign contributions and seeking to stop enforcing PAC contribution limits, while opposing tightening conflict-of-interest guidelines as to when judges should recuse themselves (which was backed by more than 50 retired state judges).

Although Kelly contends that he is a strict constructionist, he supports rolling back a number of precedents that he does not agree with, including Roe v. Wade. Kelly has violated the Supreme Court tradition of nonpartisanship by setting up his campaign office inside the Republican Party’s state headquarters. 

The Capital Times states that “Kelly is a scandal-plagued appointee …” and a “reckless partisan in a nonpartisan position.” He has blogged, “Social Security is a form of involuntary servitude … Its essence is the requirement that, against your will, the benefit of your work goes to someone else without receiving anything in exchange … When the recipients are people who have chosen to retire without sufficient assets to support themselves, we call the transfer Social Security and Medicare.” Kelly totally disregards the fact that people pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes every day of their working life. He has proclaimed the Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act the “end of democracy.”

Kelly’s extreme views disregard the role of government and the importance of shared values and the common good. He is out of touch with Wisconsinites. Visit jillforjustice.com to read about an experienced, commonsense candidate. Vote Jill Karofsky to the Supreme Court.

Carol Jensen-Olson

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin