A group of prominent conservative lawyers (and a judge) is endorsing Doyle-appointee Lisa Neubauer in the race for the Appeals Court. They are NOT buying William Gleisner's claims that he is a conservative. Here is the letter:

To Persons Interested in the April 1 Election for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II:

We write in support of Judge Lisa Neubauer, who will be on the April 1 ballot to retain her seat on the Court.  As former colleagues of Judge Neubauer, we have known Lisa for many years and strongly support her candidacy.  That does not make us unique, for Lisa’s support among her former professional colleagues seems universal.  We, however, bring the perspective of having perhaps differed with Lisa in the past (before she became a judge) on our personal preferences in candidates for partisan political offices.  We thought you might want to know why lawyers who may have differed with her in that regard still strongly support her candidacy.

Judges should be supported on whether they are best qualified to discern what the law is and how it applies in the controversies that come before them.  As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Paper 78, “The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise will instead of judgment, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body.”  Judges should be chosen for their judgment, and their willingness to exercise it, rather than advancing their own views.  On this paramount criterion, Judge Neubauer is well qualified, for she possesses excellent judgment.

Judgment is founded on and requires three distinct and essential qualities:

            1.         Intelligence – the capacity truly to understand the law.

            2.         Diligence – a demonstrated willingness to work hard.

            3.         Integrity – both judicial integrity to follow the law made by others and personal integrity.

From years of practicing law with Judge Neubauer, under the sometimes trying circumstances encountered in an active private practice involving important and difficult legal issues, we can assure you that she possesses all of these qualities.  She’s very smart, she works incredibly hard, but, more than anything else, she has integrity.

In fact, this current campaign to retain her seat on the court has demonstrated Judge Neubauer’s personal integrity in a way that you, too, can judge.  One mark of her integrity is that she has brought the same fundamental message to every audience.  Judge Neubauer believes to her core that we all want judges who are smart, who work hard and who have both personal integrity and judicial integrity to follow the law.  She proclaims this belief whether she is in front of Republican or Democratic groups, before groups of business people or members of labor unions, or at local bar association meetings.  Judge Neubauer possesses the courage to resist the temptation to alter her message, or to change her biography, based on what people might want her to say in order to gain their support.

We who know her best can attest to the fact that she has the integrity that drives a good judge to follow the law as it is–to research and analyze complex legal issues with incredible tenacity until she gets them right.  She believes in the stability and predictability of the law, because she understands and has seen what happens when courts reach beyond the law to achieve an outcome that particular judges might favor, rather than the law as made by competent authorities, whether the legislature or a higher court.  And she has the personal integrity never to be swayed by the pressures of interest groups, whether from the left or the right.

In short, Judge Neubauer has integrity you can trust.  She is intelligent, fair, and independent.  We have no doubt that she will continue to strive to do justice by reaching the results the law requires.  What more could any of us ask of a judge?

It is unfortunate that Judge Neubauer’s election opponent has sought to garner support—particularly among Republicans and other political conservatives—because Judge Neubauer was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Doyle.  This approach seems particularly disingenuous because her opponent himself has at least twice sought judicial appointments from Governor Doyle—including for this current seat—and presumably would have welcomed the Governor’s favor and support had he been able to get the appointment.  But let’s take a moment to consider this “issue” of who appointed Judge Neubauer.  When we have been active in political causes in the past, supporting candidates for Governor or President, part of what drove us was the wish to have our preferred candidate be in the position to appoint judges.  This is a wholly legitimate consequence of winning elections in our democratic system, and it would be hypocritical to say that a Republican President’s or Governor’s appointments should be judged on their merits but that a Democratic Governor’s should be rejected on political grounds.

But more basically, this approach cynically furthers the dangerous idea that a judge will decide cases in a particular way because she was appointed by a particular governor.  For good reason, judicial races in Wisconsin are non-partisan.  We flatly reject even implicit attempts to promote the suggestion that Judge Neubauer will further particular causes on the bench.  Everything we know about her convinces us that she will always be rigorously independent of politics and every other improper consideration in the performance of her duties as a judge.

We ask you to join us in actively supporting Judge Lisa Neubauer in her effort to retain her seat on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

Sincerely,

Hon. Michael B. Brennan                      Rick Esenberg                         Thomas L. Shriner, Jr

 Donald A. Daugherty                           David W. Simon                        G. Michael Halfenger