Mother and Daughter, Justly Proud
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom are wary of almost all of the labels that people try to put on them and on other justices and judges.
But one label they are proud of is mother and daughter, and that was clear Thursday during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at the Law School. The two are believed to be the only mother and daughter to serve on the bench at the same time in Wisconsin history, Gousha said.
“You’ve just been an incredible role model for me,” Judge Brostrom told her mother. Justice Roggensack said she never intentionally put her daughter on the path to being a judge, but she agreed she was very pleased when Bostrom narrowly won election in 2009.
When Gousha asked how the two of them react to labels such as “conservative” or “liberal” when it comes to describing judges, Justice Roggensack said, “I think it’s a lazy definition.” The use of labels reflects the high degree of partisanship of the times, especially when it comes to elections. She said labels are useful in negative campaigning, which is the way campaigns “can hit hardest fastest.”
Most cases that come before the state Supreme Court don’t fit on a liberal-conservative axis, she said.
No one would be surprised to learn the work of the courts relates to the economy, but it’s nevertheless intriguing to see how the courts have taken up “clean-up” work related to the recent economic collapse. According to a report in the New York Times on December 28, 2009, the courts have a huge number of new filings related to deals that went awry and also to bad debts. In addition, there are rapidly increasing claims of domestic violence in homes affected by unemployment and lost wages.