Justice Roggensack's extreme agenda

Here's a profile of Wisconsin's first mother-daughter judicial team, Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack and newly elected Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom.

Roggensack has been labeled a conservative, a tag she rejects.

"Some people point to Chief Justice (Shirley) Abrahamson and say the court is so liberal," Roggensack said. "But we vote 7-0 on most of the cases that come before us."

Somebody better tell Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick.

During this year's Supreme Court election, Koschnick tossed forth some campaign literature that purported to show Chief Justice Abrahamson "voting in favor of criminal defendants" 60% of the time, whereas Justice Roggensack came in at 17%.

(The embattled Michael Gableman scored a 0%, thus far fulfilling his own promise to be law enforcement's "ally" in the "war on crime," a perfectly appropriate role for any self-respecting appellate judge.)

The figures, according to Judge Koschnick, were supposed to demonstrate Shirley Abrahamson's "liberal activism" and her EXTREME AGENDA (those are Koschnick's all-caps), even though 60% is considerably closer to the arithmetic median than is 17%.

Barring any vacancies* in the meantime, Justice Roggensack is the next high court judge up for reelection in 2013. Justice David Prosser (28% pro-criminal) is next, in 2011. (Thanks, Brett.)

* E.g., Gableman's.