Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates clash over 1849 abortion ban in lone debate

The 2 candidates battling for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Courtroom clashed Tuesday over the state’s 1849 abortion ban of their lone debate, underscoring the excessive stakes of an election that would resolve the problem in one of many nation’s most essential swing states.

Former Justice Daniel Kelly, a conservative, and liberal opponent Milwaukee County Choose Janet Protasiewicz will sq. off April 4 in an election that may resolve the stability of the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom. In a state the place management is cut up between a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled legislature, the excessive courtroom may resolve the end result of authorized battles over the state’s abortion legal guidelines, its legislative maps and extra.

The controversy – the one one scheduled between Protasiewicz and Kelly – passed off on the identical day Wisconsin voters started casting early ballots in individual.

It’s the nation’s costliest judicial contest on file, with about $30 million already spent on promoting and counting, as there are two weeks remaining within the marketing campaign. Wisconsin is one among 14 states within the nation that instantly elects Supreme Courtroom justice on this method.

Protasiewicz centered her assaults on Kelly on abortion, with the state’s 1849 ban on practically all abortions at the moment being challenged in courtroom and more likely to land earlier than the state Supreme Courtroom.

“If my opponent is elected, I can let you know with 100% certainty, that 1849 abortion ban will keep on the books. I can let you know that,” Protasiewicz stated in Tuesday’s debate.

She stated she is “making no guarantees” on how she would rule on the 1849 abortion regulation. However she additionally famous her private help for abortion rights, in addition to endorsements from pro-abortion rights teams. And she or he pointed to Kelly’s endorsement by Wisconsin Proper to Life, which opposes abortion rights.

Kelly shot again that Protasiewicz’s feedback are “completely not true.”

“You don’t know what I’m occupied with that abortion ban,” he stated. “You haven’t any thought. These belongings you have no idea.”

The controversy passed off earlier than a crowd of about 100 individuals who had been seated in an auditorium on the workplaces of the State Bar of Wisconsin in Madison. The candidates answered questions from a panel of three Wisconsin reporters because the viewers watched in silence.

The rhetoric grew more and more bitter and testy, significantly on the matters of abortion, redistricting and legal sentencing, with the 2 rivals standing a number of ft aside on a small stage. The variations which have been aired in a multi-million tv advert marketing campaign got here alive.

Kelly seemed instantly at his opponent and repeatedly raised pointed questions on her integrity, saying at one level: “This appears to be a sample for you, Janet, telling lies about me.” He known as her by her first identify, Janet, relatively than choose.

Protasiewic solely sometimes seemed towards her challenger, however pushed again towards an allegation that she is delicate on crime: “I’ve labored very laborious to maintain our group protected, every day I’m on the bench.”

Kelly accused Protasiewicz of handing down gentle sentences to violent offenders.

He cited the case of Anton Veasley, who in 2021 was convicted of kid enticement and third diploma sexual assault and was launched after Protasiewicz stayed his five-year jail sentence with 4 years of probation, giving him credit score for 417 days he’d already spent in jail.

“We have a look at the sentencing she has composed and the reasoning she used to succeed in these conclusions, and that’s simply irresponsible to permit harmful convicted criminals again out so simply with no repercussions into the communities they simply acquired carried out victimizing,” Kelly stated.

Protasiewicz acknowledged that “hindsight is 20/20.” However she stated Kelly was mischaracterizing her file.

“I’ve sentenced 1000’s of individuals. And it’s attention-grabbing {that a} handful of instances have been cherry-picked and chosen and twisted, and inadequate information have been supplied to the voters,” she stated.