Justice Bradley Won’t Recuse Herself

Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley heard arguments Monday in a lawsuit brought by a major campaign donor challenging the governor’s authority to issue successive public health orders amid the covid-19 pandemic.

The suit was brought by Jere Fabick, of Oconomowoc, owner of FABCO Equipment, who contributed the maximum $20,000 to Bradley’s campaign on March 15, 2016 when she was running for a 10-year term on the court. Rebecca Bradley is part of the high court’s 4-3 conservative majority.

Current recusal rules, which were fashioned with the help of business and real estate interests who have spent millions of dollars to elect conservative justices, do not require justices to recuse in cases where the parties contributed to their election campaigns.

Fabick, who is also on the board of directors of the Heartland Institute, a rightwing Illinois think tank, is a loyal GOP donor. Fabick contributed about $355,900 to mostly Republican legislative and statewide candidates between January 1994 and June 2020.

The suit accused Evers of acting unlawfully when he issued successive emergency orders in July and September aimed at controlling the pandemic because the law grants him only one opportunity to do that. He issued is first 60-day emergency order in March, which expired in May.

Last May, the high court’s conservative majority ruled 4-3 in favor of a lawsuit brought by the GOP-controlled legislature to strike down an attempt by state health officials to extend his first order after it expired.