March 23, 2013

Wisconsin Supreme Court debate.

Here's the complete debate that took place last night between incumbent Justice Pat Roggensack and her challenger Marquette University law professor Ed Fallone. It's quite lively and fast-moving, with a good bit of attention to the much-publicized discord that took place 2 years ago. You may remember the story of one justice rushing at another and an accusation of choking. In that scenario, Roggensack was the one who broke up the melée.





The election is April 2d. The term to be served is 10 years.

8 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

This video demonstrates the value of appearing in the studio whenever you can and whenever it's important.

garage mahal said...

Ed Fallone is too good for this state.

Palladian said...

This embedded video is autoplaying on the main page of your site after a delay.

Bob Ellison said...

Interesting discussion. I watched it all. They both presented as thoughtful, educated people. From the outside, I don't see much reason to dislike either one of them.

I don't like electing judges, though.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks, Palladian. I threw in a page break.

Chuck said...

I like elections of state judges, and I bristle at the suggestions (usually from the left) that states adopt Missouri-type plans for judicial selection. So-called Missouri plans feature judicial selection committees, loaded with luminaries from law schools, who screen and supply limited lists of candidates for appointment or later confirmation elections.

Missouri plans for judicial selection usually result in left-leaning and pro-lawyer judges. It's tough to advance the cause of tort reform, which tends to reduce business for lawyers on all sides, when the judges are all lawyer-approved.

So I like judicial elections.

But I have never seen a judicial election debate. Have they done this in Wisconsin in the past? Do other judicial-election states have candidate debates? Here in Michigan, I cannot recall an occasion when we have had a debate of Supreme Court candidates.

Chuck said...

I like elections of state judges, and I bristle at the suggestions (usually from the left) that states adopt Missouri-type plans for judicial selection. So-called Missouri plans feature judicial selection committees, loaded with luminaries from law schools, who screen and supply limited lists of candidates for appointment or later confirmation elections.

Missouri plans for judicial selection usually result in left-leaning and pro-lawyer judges. It's tough to advance the cause of tort reform, which tends to reduce business for lawyers on all sides, when the judges are all lawyer-approved.

So I like judicial elections.

But I have never seen a judicial election debate. Have they done this in Wisconsin in the past? Do other judicial-election states have candidate debates? Here in Michigan, I cannot recall an occasion when we have had a debate of Supreme Court candidates.

Chuck said...

Oops, after watching the video I see that it wasn't really a debate. Just a "conversation." No openings/closings, timed responses, defined topics, etc. A joint interview, such as it may be.

So some states might do some of this.