A liberal expected to win a Supreme Court seat was upset by a conservative. What went wrong?
Until Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court had a close race between the liberal Judge Lisa Neubauer and her conservative opponent Judge Brian Hagedorn. Before recent conclusions, the Democratic party was confident that their candidate, Lisa Neubauer, would undoubtably win the race. However, the results claimed otherwise. Judge Brian Hagedorn won his position as the Supreme Court Justice despite the previous hate he received for his religious beliefs.
According to Charles J. Sykes, in an April 2019 article titled “Warning from Wisconsin” the newly Supreme Court Justice received major backlash for his founding of the K-8 Augustine Academy in Waukesha Country. It is claimed that LGBT students and staff were forbidden from the school because they practice “immoral sexual activity” and violated their code that bans any “sexual arousal apart from the context of marriage between one man and one woman.” The ruling of the school and other notable claims in support of traditional marriage costed Hagedorn endorsements from major state realtors. This led Republicans to lose hope in Hagedorn’s spot in the race, but he wasn’t finished just yet. Hagedorn argued that he was being cruelly attacked for his religious views and had rallies of religious conservatives to support him and help him win the race.
As we learned in previous lectures, the religious views of political elites’ matter in society because it shapes the people’s attitudes toward religion and politics. I feel that many people were very concerned over Hagedorn success in receiving the role of Supreme Court Justice because his religious beliefs can potentially influence his judicial decision-making. Although it may not matter in every instance, I feel religious background can create issues in modern policy debates over topics like abortion and same-sex marriage. Therefore, the conclusion to the Supreme Court race is especially important to me because Hagedorn becoming a Supreme Justice means that the conservatives will have control over the majority of the court this year and can influence the general public’s view on religion and politics. I personally do not agree with Hagedorn’s views and favor the more liberal approach. For that reason, I feel concerned over the new policies that will be up for debate within the next year and feel it will be slightly more difficult to take a step forward towards a more accepting America.
