Wisconsin elects Supreme Court justice who claimed ‘queers with AIDS deserve no sympathy’
A judge has been elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court – after it emerged she wrote extremely homophobic columns as a student.
Rebecca Bradley was appointed to the court last year by the state’s Governor Scott Walker to fill a vacant seat – and was up for re-election this week.
Earlier this year, old opinion columns penned by Bradley surfaced online – in which she expressed shocking views about “queers”.
Bradley wrote: “Perhaps AIDS Awareness should seek to educate us with their misdirected compassion for the degenerates who basically commit suicide through their behaviour.”
She adds of AIDS: “The homosexuals and drug addicts who do essentially kill themselves and others through their own behaviour deservedly receive none of my sympathy.”
Of gay sex, she says: “Heterosexual sex is very healthy in a loving martial relationship. Homosexual sex, however, kills.”
She continued: “How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments.”
Appeals court judge JoAnne Kloppenburg had challenged Bradley in the contest, with voters heading to the polls on Tuesday.
But with nearly all the votes counted, Bradley has 1,008,970 votes – well ahead of Kloppenburg on 917,357.
Speaking at a rally in Milwaukee ahead of the state’s Democratic primary previously, Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton had urged voters to turn out and unseat Bradley.
The former Secretary of State said: “There is no place on any Supreme Court or any court in this country, no place at all for Rebecca Bradley’s decades-long track record of dangerous rhetoric against women, survivors of sexual assault and the LGBT community.
Ms Bradley previously attacked the release of her old opinion columns, which were written more than 20 years ago, branding their release a “blatant mudslinging campaign”.
She said: “Recently an article I wrote while a college student at Marquette 24 years ago has surfaced on left leaning blogs and now the mainstream press.
“I was writing as a very young student, upset about the outcome of that presidential election and I am frankly embarrassed at the content and tone of what I wrote those many years ago.
“To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview.
“These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state. ”
She added: “This is a blatant mudslinging campaign to distract the people from the issues at hand. This election is about diametrically opposed judicial philosophies.
“I have run a positive campaign focused on the rule of law and strict adherence to the U.S. and Wisconsin Constitutions.
“I am proud of the twenty plus years of experience I bring to this race, including my time as a Judge on the Milwaukee children’s court, the appellate court, and Supreme Court.
“I will work for the people of this state to ensure that justice is served and upheld on the state’s highest court.”
However, opponents have ridiculed her for objecting to the release of opinions that she herself chose to publish in the first place.
The state’s Governor Scott Walker has insisted the comments are “irrelevant” because Bradley no longer holds those views – despite her lacklustre ‘apologies’.
