A message from Justice Karofsky

I have spent my career in the law working to help crime victims and to protect our rights, and I ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court because I know we need to get our state and our country back on the right track.

I was a judge, I’ve been a local and state prosecutor, I directed the state’s Office of Crime Victim Services. No one knows better than me how important it is to have a legal system that works.

Today, too many judges see themselves as on one political team or another. But I think we need strong leaders who will put our strong Wisconsin political tradition of independent and honest courts first.

I believe in Wisconsin. I believe in our history of great public schools, protecting our beautiful natural resources, and protecting civil rights for all.

As a prosecutor and a judge, I have deep experience in state courtrooms, and have spent a career standing up for our rights and fighting to protect victims.

Now, thanks to the voters of Wisconsin, I have been elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

In my career prosecuting violent criminals, working as the top assistant attorney general on violence against women cases, and running the state’s victim services programs, I learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in our system. I know that our  judicial system is built on independent judges, not a system in which it matters what political team you’re on.

So now I see the corroding effect of big money on our judicial system. It’s time to restore a sense of justice and honor to our legal system.

I will follow the law, and I will protect our values.

My dad, Peter, was a local pediatrician. My mom, Judy, was one of the first women in Wisconsin to serve as a city mayor.

This country has made tremendous strides in extending equal rights to all, and I’m inspired by the example of my father, and how he cares for children every day, and by my mother and the groundbreaking path she forged.

We can’t go backwards, and it’s distressing to me that rather than respecting our rights, we now see a moment in which political forces seek to roll back the advances in civil rights we’ve made in the last few generations.

More than anything, our courts are about constitutional rights.

We will serve the needs of crime victims, we will stand up for racial justice and civil rights, we will protect the right to marriage equality, and we will never allow for the rights of women to be rolled back.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to staying in touch.

Thanks,

Jill