OPINION:
Judges are trying to block the will of the majority of us who voted for President Trump. The outcome of the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin could lead to yet another barrier to the Trump administration if radical Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford is elected as a new justice. We can’t let that happen.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered that two deportation flights to Central America, filled with violent gang members who were in the United States illegally, return to the United States. The White House refused to abide by the order, claiming that the flights with criminals and terrorists were outside the jurisdiction of the judge.
Administration officials explained that Mr. Trump was invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport non-citizens who were identified as members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang. Attorney General Pam Bondi called them a “foreign arm of the Venezuelan government.” Justice Department attorneys cited national security concerns after refusing to provide Judge Boasberg with information about the flights after officials refused to turn them around and return to the United States.
Mr. Trump signed a proclamation that the Venezuelan government sent Tren de Aragua to invade the United States, and they were “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” Last month, he moved to designate them and a number of Mexican drug cartels as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”
Federal statutes layout three criteria for triggering the Alien Enemies Act. One of them is an invasion. Any of us who have visited the southern border during the past decade can see that there is an invasion taking place there that got significantly worse from January 2021 until January 2025. Now, President Trump is getting the worst-of-the-worst that got in during that period out of our country.
If Judge Crawford is elected to the High Court in Wisconsin, watch for her and the other three radical justices to try to block even more of the Trump agenda. I can see them attempting to stop any deportations from my home state. She must not win.
Another judge blocked President Trump’s executive order protecting female service members from having to live and bathe in common areas with service members who were born male. President Trump also signed an executive order protecting young women in sports from having to compete against biological men. It also protects them from having to share locker rooms and showers.
In Wisconsin, liberal Gov. Tony Evers tried to sneak language into the state budget that would replace “mother” with “inseminated person.” Thankfully, conservatives still hold majorities in the state Legislature, but the election of Judge Crawford could block further efforts to protect women in sports.
Then there is the judge who ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to house men in women’s prisons. On top of that, the taxpayers have to pay for their female hormone treatment. That certainly does not protect the female prisoners in those facilities.
Judge Theodore Chuang ordered members of the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to all USAID employees. Not surprisingly, a group of former USAID employees sued to reopen the agency and regain their jobs.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration had concluded a review and that 83% of the programs at USAID would be canceled—including more than 5,000 contracts. The White House previously released a long list of outrageous expenditures at USAID, including hundreds of millions spent to fund heroin production in Afghanistan benefiting the Taliban, money for a group linked to designated terrorist organizations, and a provider of meals to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria. Taxpayer money should not be paid for these programs.
When I was governor, we killed a “high-speed rail” plan to connect the two largest cities in Wisconsin: Milwaukee and Madison. My predecessor approved the original plan with funding from the Obama administration. I called it a boondoggle and said state taxpayers would be on the hook for cost overruns. A review of the unfinished “high-speed rail” plan in California shows I was right.
Susan Crawford was a private lawyer at the time. She represented a foreign train company that tried to get $66 million from the taxpayers of Wisconsin when we canceled the project and did not need new train cars. Imagine what she could do as part of a 4 -3 radical majority on the state Supreme Court. Efforts to weed out waste, fraud, and abuse would be seriously reduced if the judiciary could limit or even block efforts by the executive branch to streamline government.
The recent overreach by federal judges to block the Trump administration and the will of the millions of us who voted for the President is another reminder of why the election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is so important. We cannot empower just one more court that will impose its own political agenda instead of upholding the Constitution and the rule of law.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
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