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Justice Bradley wants ‘more years on the court’

By: Eric Heisig//May 29, 2014//

Justice Bradley wants ‘more years on the court’

By: Eric Heisig//May 29, 2014//

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Justice Ann Walsh Bradley
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said Thursday she looks forward to “serving many more years on the court.”

Bradley’s second term concludes in July 2015. When asked if her comment meant she was running for re-election, Bradley said she would prefer a reporter leave a message with the reason for their call, and then hung up.

Of the current justices, Bradley has served the second-longest. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson has been on the court since 1976.

Bradley was elected to the court in 1995 and re-elected in 2005.

No other candidates have yet entered the race, which will be held in April 2015. According to a report on the Government Accountability Board’s website from January, Bradley’s campaign had $23,922.56 in its account. A campaign finance report for this year has not yet been filed.

Bradley has been pinpointed as a member of the court’s liberal bloc, along with Abrahamson and, occasionally, Justice Patrick Crooks. She was criticized by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan organization, for voting to affirm Nestle USA Inc. v. Wisconsin Department of Revenue in 2011, despite owning at least $5,000 worth of Nestle stock.

She also found herself in the center of controversy, along with Justice David Prosser, for a 2011 altercation between the two that occurred during Wisconsin’s passage of Act 10 and subsequent court challenges. Bradley told investigators Prosser put his hands around her neck but did not apply pressure.

Prosser was not criminally charged, and an ethics case stalled after his fellow justices recused themselves.

Bradley started out as in-house counsel for an insurance company, and later opened her own firm. She was elected to the Marathon County Circuit Court in 1985, where she served 10 years.

She was chosen as one of the Wisconsin Law Journal’s 2014 Women in the Law. According to her biography on the Supreme Court’s website, Bradley also is a winner of the American Judicature Society’s Harley Award.

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