ICYMI: Supreme Court Candidate Judge Jill Karofsky Wants to “Limit People’s Possession of Firearms”

February 6, 2020

[Madison, WI] – In case you missed it, Supreme Court Candidate Judge Jill Karofsky believes that lawmakers can limit our Constitutional right to possess firearms, a clear indication of how she would rule from the bench of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Karofsky has previously called on lawmakers to restrict Wisconsinites’ access to firearms and is running on a platform that calls for stricter gun control.  

Jill Karofsky’s comments are even more concerning seeing as Democrat Gov. Tony Evers has floated the idea of mandatory gun confiscation and red flag laws. If elected to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, Karofsky could be responsible for voting on the constitutionality of such measures. 

This is just the latest in Jill Karofsky’s record of promising to prioritize her own social justice warrior agenda from the bench. Karofsky previously said that she would be able to advocate for social justice issues from the bench of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court and compared the decision to get an abortion to the decision to get one’s wisdom teeth removed. 


Read the full write-up here, or find excerpts below.

Karofsky: Lawmakers can ‘limit people’s possession of firearms’
Empower Wisconsin
M.D. Kittle
February 5, 2020

Liberal Supreme Court justice candidate Jill Karofsky has been guarded in discussing most legal issues, but her comments over time give a pretty clear indication about where she stands on the Second Amendment.

To the Dane County Circuit Court judge, the constitution is flexible on gun rights. 

“I think that there are ways that are constitutional that we are able to limit people’s possession of firearms so that we’re able to live in a country where we don’t have to send our kids to school for code-red drills,” Karofsky was quoted as saying last month in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story. 

Does than mean she would vote to uphold the kind of gun-confiscation laws (Red Flag laws and government-led gun buyback programs) Democrats like Gov. Tony Evers have been pushing? Karofsky won’t say. She did not return Empower Wisconsin’s request for comment regarding her views on the Second Amendment and gun control. 

Karofsky’s views on limiting “people’s possession of firearms” have been attacked by Second Amendment defenders and the conservative candidate she is trying to unseat, Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. They see the Dane County judge as just another liberal activist set on interpreting the law to reflect her personal beliefs. She has denied the claim.

In reading the federal and state constitutions, Kelly has said he strictly adheres to their text and historical meaning, and that philosophy fully applies to gun ownership.  

Kelly told the Milwaukee Journal he found no errors in District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that reasserted the right to bear arms is an individual right. That’s when Karofsky made her comment about finding constitutional ways to limit the possession of firearms. The other liberal in the race, Marquette University Law School professor Ed Fallone, called the Heller decision “judicial activism on the right,” but he said overturning it would only “turn these issues into political footballs.”

Karofsky certainly isn’t opposed to firing off verbal rounds at her conservative opponent. Kelly recently accused her of slander for claiming the justice always rules in favor of “right-wing” special interests, even as Karofsky draws her base of support from left-wing interests. 

Read the full write-up here.

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