Worst Most Corrupt Conservative Activist Supreme Court Shreds Elected Office, blames "administration leviathan" and "Bureaucratic Overlords!"

It took awhile, but Republicans stuck with their plan to corrupt the judicial branch, and now they have what they needed; open and dishonest activist judges/justices legislating from the bench! This last week, Republicans were allowed to limit the governor's and AG's power:

"Constitutional original-ism?" Well, don't forget about what our state constitutional founding fathers intended too, which is now being channeled by our sitting Republican psychic mediums...I mean justices.

Good-bye Superintendent of Public Instruction: Republicans have now secured constitutionally the dismantling of public education in the future, or least greatly hold back reform and progress for years, if not decades. This was a big win for them, and an immeasurable loss for education, similar to what Republicans did to the supreme court:

JS: The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed itself Tuesday by ruling the state schools chief cannot set education policy without permission from the governor, a blow to Democrats who have controlled the state's education agency for decades.

The ruling makes successful an eight-year effort by Republicans ... Tuesday's decision overturns the court's own ruling just three years ago when justices said in Coyne v. Walker that Evers could write rules and regulations related to education policy on his own — without permission from then-Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature — because the state constitution provides him with the power to do so.

Evers, in a statement, said "The facts didn't change in the last three years and neither did the meaning of the constitution. Only the composition of the court did.”

Surprise, Republicans waited for Majority Activist Justices to pull off Scheme: Conservative lawsuit mill WILL admitted it:

AP: In her dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley noted the new lawsuit was filed after two members of the court that had previously upheld the state superintendent's authority — justices Michael Gableman and David Prosser — were no longer on the court.

"And why are we here again? At oral argument, counsel for the petitioners was asked, 'you wouldn't be here asking a supreme court of the state of Wisconsin to overturn a decision that it just made two years ago if it were the same court, would you?' In response, counsel acknowledged, 'any lawyer has to make strategic decisions about what is likely to be successful.' Indeed," Bradley wrote. "Although nothing in our Constitution has changed since Coyne was decided, what has changed is the membership of the court."

Surprise, Chief Justice twists previous decision into Convoluted Word Salad Nonsense: Not kidding, really:

Chief Justice Pat Roggensack wrote in the majority opinion ... a footnote justifying how the court could reverse itself. She wrote the 2016 opinion was fractured with two concurrences and failed to establish a “common legal rationale.” As result there was no rationale to analyze, opening the door for another look at the issues.

Huh? Roggensack just obliterated precedent/stare decisis. 

Stare decisis is a doctrine, or an instruction, used in all court cases and with all legal issues. Stare decisis means that courts look to past, similar issues to guide their decisions. These past decisions are known as precedent.

Republican Justice Bradley opinion polluted with Political Trash Talk: Bradley's divisive right-wing writings in the past as a student, as it turns out, weren't so irrelevant after all. I guess she forgot the state Superintendent is an elected office determined by voters, or as Bradley puts it, the "supreme power held by the people." Bradley seems to have an issue with our overly complicated constitutionally created "administrative leviathan" known as state government. 

Justice Rebecca Bradley in a separate concurring opinion criticized what she called "the concentration of power within an administrative leviathan."

"The philosophical roots of rule by bureaucratic overlords are antithetical to the Founders' vision of our constitutional Republic, in which supreme power is held by the people through their elected representatives, and 'the creation of rules of private conduct' is 'an irregular and infrequent occurrence,'" she wrote.

Walker challenges Constitution, what he calls the "status quo," Loses.

The laughable lapdog antics of our know-nothing AG Brad Schimel, has crossed the line into blantant ass-kissing. Congratulations low information, what-ever-Walker-wants Republican in-the-tank voters, we now know you're not only dangerous to yourself, you're a danger to your community for voting Schimel in. WKOW:

Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling dealt Gov. Scott Walker a rare loss in the high court Wednesday, upholding a ruling that keeps the state education secretary independent ... the court rejected arguments made by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel to overturn the decision. 

Never getting into the partisan gutter with Walker, Superintendent Evers simply took the high ground:

Current DPI Superintendent Tony Evers (said) the case before the court was about preserving the office's role as a nonpartisan constitutional officer in charge of implementing and overseeing education policy.

Wait, didn't Republicans already blow up the supposed myth of being "nonpartisan," which allows them to politicize everything without guilt or explanation.   

I thought the following was an amazing reveal from Walker's office over the decision. The whole privatization movement is based on playing off the fears every parent has over whether they're doing enough to help their kids succeed in school. Walker's solution is to put average elected school board members with no background in education in charge; parents who haven't been in school for decades in charge; and kids in charge of deciding their districts curriculum. Skip the research, the successes elsewhere, ignore educators. We want parents to feel good, because they know what's best instinctively:

Walker Spokesperson Tom Evenson (wrote), "Beginning with the Act 10 reforms in 2011, Governor Walker is dedicated to challenging the status quo when it impedes the ability of parents, school boards, and students to get the best educational outcomes."

Walker Justice Rebecca Bradley sides with boss, against state Constitution, to make Schools Superintendent subordinate to governor.

The buried headline in the WPR story below is my headline above. We now know how grateful Justice Bradley really is for her 3-year fast tracked journey to a seat on the State Supreme Court.

Even the most conservative Justices couldn’t justify misreading the Constitution, handing ultimate power to Scott Walker.

A Divided Wisconsin Supreme Court Has Overturned Part of a Law That Would Have Given Governors Veto Power Over State Superintendents' Administrative Rules: Walker and Republican legislators passed the law shortly after they came to power in 2011. 

Writing the lead opinion for a divided Supreme Court, Justice Michael Gableman said the law known as 2011 Act 21 gave the state superintendent no way to proceed with rulemaking without the Governor's approval.

"Thus, Act 21 unconstitutionally vests the supervision of public instruction in officers who are not officers of supervision of public instruction," wrote Gableman, one of the court's five conservative justices. Fellow conservative Justice David Prosser also ruled against the law, as did Justices Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley, the court's two liberal members.  

Clarity on Two Recent Supreme Court Changes: Why did Walker want to make Patience Roggensack chief Justice and install constitutional "originalist" Rebecca Bradley on the bench? Because they will be reliable Walker lapdogs. Seriously, ruling against two previous rulings supporting the Superintendent of Public Education constitutional powers...?

Conservative Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley dissented.

The court's decision upheld rulings by judges at the circuit court and appeals court levels who sided with the teacher's union members who challenged the law: "In the court's view," wrote Dane County Judge Amy Smith in her 2012 order, "the feature that renders Act 21 unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt is the fact that Act 21 permits the governor, and the (Department of Administration) Secretary under certain circumstances, to stop the superintendent from starting and/or pursuing the process of rulemaking." 

Gableman said that rulemaking was the chief means that the legislature had given the superintendent had to carry out its duty.

Proving once and for all that the words "law" and "liberty" are just marketing tools to appear credible to tea party knuckleheads, the lawsuit mill Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty's Rick Esenberg now knows more than the activist conservative justices he's agreed with so often:

Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel of the conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, who argued before the court in favor of the 2011 law applying to DPI, said Wednesday in a statement that the court's ruling "misapprehends the nature of rule-making and the way in which the Department of Public Instruction actually wields its supervisory authority."

Republican Rep. Sanfelippo wants Politically controlled education by party appointment of State Superintendent, and lied about Tony Evers qualifications.

Starting with the Republican Party narrative that Wisconsin schools are bad, isn't it time we stop and ask these snake oil salesmen how the hell we're still in 2nd place nationally on the ACT's? 

And if we're failing so bad under the guidance of (Democratic) State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, why did he just win reelection with 61% of the vote in our deep red state? 

Perhaps you'll want to believe hook-line-and-sinker for this twisted line of BS from Republican Rep. Joe Sanfelippo: 

“For too many years DPI has been able to deflect blame for its failures and rebuff desperately needed reforms by hiding behind the fact that its superintendent is an elected official. The state’s school system needs to be improved and the only way we can do that is by holding DPI more accountable, and with an appointed superintendent, we can do exactly that.”

Wait a minute, elections do hold public officials accountable, unless I'm missing something. Note to Sanfelippo, that's why we have elections? Oh, I forgot, Republicans now have gerrymandered safe seats, so who needs elections anymore.

In another example where absolute power corrupts:

After an appeals court overruled Republican attempts to weaken the powers of the state's elected schools superintendent, a GOP lawmaker wants to let the governor choose the superintendent rather than voters.

Even the Journal Sentinel's Jason Stein had to finally admit to the tactic:

It's one of several changes that Republicans have made to weaken the powers of state and local officials aligned with Democrats, moves that GOP lawmakers say are needed to make government work more smoothly.  

Uh oh, "More Smoothly" = Big Government Republicans! Under the false belief that centralized power makes everything run "more smoothly," Sanfelippo apparently wants to marginalize voters. 

In 2011 Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers attempted to give the governor the power to halt administrative rules issued by Evers. But in February 2015 a state appeals court upheld a lower court decision striking down that move as unconstitutional given that the state's charter says that "the supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a state superintendent" elected to four-year terms in officially non-partisan spring elections. That case is now before the state Supreme Court. 

Sanfelippo is proposing a constitutional amendment to stop electing superintendents ... "Wisconsin is one of only 12 states in the country that elects its state superintendent ... under the measure the Legislature could act to replace the governor's choice.

Complicated and "smoother," all at the same time.

I had to laugh at this unintentional argument against actually having any kind of elections at all from the right wing propagandists at The Wisconsin Watchdog:

As the lawmaker notes (Sanfelippo), elected superintendents like DPI chief Tony Evers are elected to four-year terms. They generally remain in the position even if their performance is considered inadequate.

Under that reasoning, who needs to keep in place our faulty elections process, because they rely so heavily on voter intent. And forget about those horrifying recalls. Funny too how this all coincides with the addition of more restrictive hurdles to vote. 

One more laughable quote from Sanfelippo: 

“The students of our state should not be held hostage just because special interest groups can get someone without the proper qualifications to win a popularity contest every four years. Our children and teachers deserve much better.”

"Someone without the proper qualifications?" Really? This is where the Journal Sentinel didn't set the record straight, leaving the reader with the impression Sanfelippo was telling the truth. Far from it. Wikipedia:

Evers received his bachelors (1974), masters (1978), and doctorate degrees (1986) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Evers began his professional career as a teacher and media coordinator in the Tomah school district. In 1979 to 1980 he was principal of the Tomah elementary school, and from 1980 to 1984 he was principal at the high school. From 1984-1988 he was superintendent of the Oakfield school district, and from 1988-1992 he was superintendent of the Verona school district. From 1992 to 2001 he was administrator of Cooperative Education Service Agency in Oshkosh.

To get an idea of who Republicans might have named superintendent, lets look at Evers last opponent, GOP State Rep. Don Pridemore. Be amazed. From WKOW:

Republican Enemy of Public Education Rep. Steve Nass: Compares voucher schools accountability to bullying.

Republican Rep. Steve Nass, against bullying? This from a guy who threatens to defund education every chance he gets when someone doesn't bow to his every desire.

Sen. Luther Olsen believes, like so many Democrats, that voucher schools need report cards too. Taking the same tests as public schools would do that. But to Steve Nass, that's bullying. From Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Nass: "Hogwash! The bills core aim is to hand greater powers to the inept Department of Public Instruction and bully private schools, making it less likely they will accept parental vouchers." 

Anybody else have a problem with private school bowing out if they don't feel they can keep up with public schools?

"Power" and "bully" are two words Nass came up with. Two words that are important to Nass' style of government. Nass can't understand why everybody doesn't apply these same two words in their day-to-day lives, just like he does.