Homophobic Judges?

Homophobic Hagedorn Unqualified for Supreme Court

Conservatives tell us that control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which boasts a 4-3 majority of conservative leaning justices, can only be maintained if we vote for Judge Brian Hagedorn in the April election to fill the seat of Justice Shirley Abrahamson who is retiring at the end of her current term. They fear if Justice Abrahamson is replaced by another “liberal,” then a loss by another Walker appointee, Justice Dan Kelly, in the next election cycle will tilt the state’s highest court too far too the left. 

Judge Hagedorn currently sits on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District Two, based in Waukesha. He is running against Judge Lisa Neubauer who is Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and is also based in Waukesha. Judge Neubauer, a longer serving jurist than Hagedorn, is supported by many liberal organizations. 

Hagedorn was appointed to the Court of Appeals by former Governor Scott Walker after serving as Walker’s chief lawyer and overseeing implementation of many of Walker’s most conservative legislative initiatives. Before working for Walker directly, Hagedorn worked as an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice after a short stint in private legal practice. He is by all measures a true hard line conservative by training and inclination.

Hagedorn’s history starts early on in conservative circles, especially those opposed to same-sex marriage and relationships based upon outmoded notions of evangelical Christian biblical teachings. In his personal blog, he wrote two particularly compelling posts. “The idea that homosexual behavior is different than bestiality as a constitutional matter is unjustifiable.” “Relationships between same sex partners are not equivalent to relationships between opposite sex couples. This is not bigotry or hate, just the truth.” 

The blog posts were written years ago, but Hagedorn has not disavowed them. He could not easily do that given the fact that after he became a judge he and his wife helped found a private Christian based private school in Waukesha in 2016 and still serve on its board of directors. Augustine Academy has a code of conduct that requires dismissal of any teacher who is part of the LBGTQ community, discipline and possible expulsion for students who come out as members of that community and even expulsion of students whose parents are in same-sex relationships. 

This is particularly troubling for a sitting judge at any level whose oath of office requires them to uphold the constitution and laws of the United States and of the State of Wisconsin. Both of our constitutions now explicitly sanction same-sex marriage and prohibit most acts of discrimination against LBGTQ people. 

Hagedorn dismisses these concerns as smear tactics, failing to recognize or acknowledge that they call into serious question his ability to set these clearly strongly held beliefs and render justice in all cases fairly and impartially.

If Hagedorn’s continued connection to Augustine Academy is not enough to disqualify him from a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, consider another recent revelation. Hagedorn has addressed and been paid over $3,000 for speaking to the Alliance Defending Freedom from 2015 through 2017. He accepted unspecified travel expenses from the group when he spoke to them again last year. This Christian legal organization supports criminalizing sodomy and sterilizing transgendered people and has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 2004, while in law school, Hagedorn interned for the group’s predecessor calling it “a wonderful group” formed to fight “the culture wars.” Hagedorn’s campaign defended the Alliance as a leading legal organization that defends Christian values and noted that the judge would not remove himself from cases brought by the group to the high court if elected.

Judge Hagedorn sees these revelations as nothing more than an attack on his faith and claims to be able to put his personal views aside and decide all cases that come before him. With this kind of track record and political alliances it seems certainly plausible that reasonable people might not take Hagedorn at his word.

After these revelations were widely reported in the media, the Wisconsin Association of Realtors withdrew its endorsement of Hagedorn and asked that it’s recent $18,000 contribution to his campaign be returned. The realtors cited unspecified recent revelations that are contrary to the values of their membership as the reason for their actions. Other organizations and trade groups, recognizing that anti-gay activities are not good for business, are likely to follow the realtor’s lead.

Conservatives rightly condemn activist judges who bring a personal or philosophical agenda to their decisions, except when those decisions involve issues about which they care passionately. Supporting a clearly activist homophobe like Judge Hagedorn demonstrates this conservative hypocrisy.

Waring Fincke is a retired lawyer who serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled for a Sheboygan County non-profit agency.

The Con Lives

Foxconn is still a Con

In August, 2017, I wrote a column here cautioning against the then proposed deal with Foxconn that would exchange tax incentives costing Wisconsin taxpayers for decades for a promise to build a brand spanking new facility to make high-end liquid crystal displays. I noted concerns beyond the fiscal, including damage to the environment, Foxconn’s less that stellar track record for keeping promises and others.

As we all now know, the deal was rushed through with little more than a “thank you ma’am” by the GOP controlled legislature and signed with much fanfare by now former Governor Scott Walker.

Foxconn proceeded with substantial help by state and local governments using the power of eminent domain to displace home owners whose presence impeded progress and ground was broken by Walker and Trump. The deal seemed to be full speed ahead until after the election of Governor Evers and other Democrats to all of Wisconsin’s administrative offices and Trump’s tweeted trade war with China heated up dramatically.

Apparently out of the blue Foxconn, decided to scale back or even eliminate the new manufacturing facility after the first of the year. After some blowback, Foxconn switched again. The next claim was that it would build a new research and development facility instead. The previous promise of 13,000 jobs somehow got lost in the shuffle. President Trump called Foxconn’s chairman and then tweeted that he had saved the day and the deal and the manufacturing plant he helped break ground for was back on track. Even though Trump was engaged in a tariff war with China, he somehow managed to convince Foxconn’s leader that the company would not be impacted.

All appeared to be well again, at least on the surface. But what about the promised blue-collar jobs and the resurgence of American manufacturing might Walker and Trump promised? Then Bloomberg published a scathing report that even under the reconstructed project, the 13,000- job promise will never be kept. 

The report outlines the external market forces requiring Foxconn to cut as many as 100,000 positions world-wide, the failures at the mini-Foxconn plant here that makes Sharp TVs, and internal resistance to the Wisconsin project by Foxconn managers. The first hard hit came at the end of last year when the company missed its’ projected job creation goal by 82 percent causing it to lose its tax credits for the year. There are only 122 jobs advertised on the company website, many at least 5 months old. 

Meanwhile, local and county governments have spent an estimated $120 million for land and the state is committed to at least $120 million in road improvements for the project. In addition, Foxconn was cleared to fill 26 acres of wetlands for the project after state regulations that would have prevented it were repealed by the legislature. 

Foxconn’s recent about-face after its chairman spoke with President Trump is, so-far, sadly lacking in specifics about Foxconn’s future in Wisconsin. It appears to be little more than a pawn in the US-China trade war that overshadows the whole mess. 

Not to be shut out of the limelight, Wisconsin’s Assembly leader, Robin Vos, and Senate Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald, immediately blamed newly elected Governor Evers for changing the environment for the deal’s success. Never mind that they offered not one shred of evidence to support their claims that Evers scuttled the deal. They claimed that no taxpayer dollars had yet been paid to Foxconn, omitting the $15 million the state paid to the village of Mount Pleasant to help with land acquisition and infrastructure costs, other promised funding for local government debt costs and road improvement guarantees.

Foxconn has a history of abandoning or scaling back projects after making grandiose promises of job and economic growth. This track record was ignored by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation executives wooed by Foxconn officials. That history was one of the reasons Gov. Evers campaigned on making the WDEC stronger and a better watchdog for taxpayer dollars. 

We may be stuck with this “pig in a poke” from the Walker era, but at least we now have people in office who will do whatever they can to hold Foxconn to its promises and minimize the damage done to our economy when the company abandons Wisconsin. Let’s hope they keep the light shining on the backroom deals so we all know when we are getting fleeced.