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.<\/p>\n
But one label they are proud of is mother and daughter, and that was clear Thursday during an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve just been an incredible role model for me,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
When Gousha asked how the two of them react to labels such as \u201cconservative\u201d or \u201cliberal\u201d when it comes to describing judges, Justice Roggensack said, \u201cI think it\u2019s a lazy definition.\u201d 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 \u201ccan hit hardest fastest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most cases that come before the state Supreme Court don\u2019t fit on a liberal-conservative axis, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWas the contract breached? Is that a liberal or conservative issue?\u201d she asked. She said if people want to know who she is, they should read her opinions, which she aims to write in terms that are clear to a wide audience.<\/p>\n
Judge Brostrom said, \u201cI think the labels miss reality. People are complicated.\u201d She said she considers her views to be liberal on some issues and conservative on others. She said she also sees her mother\u2019s views as being more complex than the labels that are frequently used in pegging the high court\u2019s seven justices. (Roggensack is generally labeled a conservative, for whatever that label is worth.)<\/p>\n
Justice Roggensack said she does not regard the Supreme Court as divided on personal lines, but there are deep divisions among the justices about the role of the court. \u201cWe do like each other as people,\u201d she said of the justices. \u201cWe are not always fond of the positions one another takes. \u201c She declined to discuss the matter specifically, but said the court will be issuing an opinion soon that will shed light on the differing philosophies.<\/p>\n
Both\u00a0said they favor electing judges and justices, even with the problems elections bring because of campaign tactics and controversies around campaign donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in democracy, I believe in people weighing in,\u201d Judge Brostrom said.<\/p>\n
Justice Roggensack said that if judicial choices were made by appointment, using recommendations from an expert committee, the selections would be limited frequently to people who were insiders in legal circles. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been on anyone\u2019s long list, much less anyone\u2019s short list,\u201d she said. She was elected to the Supreme Court in 2003, after serving as a state appeals court judge.<\/p>\n
Justice Roggensack said you can get excellent judges both by election and by appointment, and you can get mediocre judges through either process.<\/p>\n
Both mother and daughter said that when they are shaping their rulings and decisions, they do not think about implications those actions might have on their re-election chances. Judge Brostrom said, \u201cIf I\u2019m not going to do this job honestly, I don\u2019t want the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by Gousha if it made a difference that women were in judicial positions now much more frequently and that four of the seven Supreme Court justices are women, Justice Roggensack said that differences on the high court do not fall along gender lines. But, she said, \u201cI think women perhaps problem-solve a little differently than men do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 \u201cOn the Issues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,46,15,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judges-judicial-process","category-speakers","category-courts","category-wisconsin-supreme-court","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}