Supreme Court Justice, or Supreme
Court Candidate, Maria.
Thank you.
I'll take Supreme Court justice, but
I'm actually a Supreme Court
Justices candidate.
So welcome, everyone.
Thank you, I'm going to start out
with an apology that I have an alto
voice, so it's a little
bit lower than normal, and I
apologize, but you're a great group
that I can talk to.
I want to tell you why this race.
Well, first of all, I should have
introduced myself.
I am Judge Maria Lazar.
I'm on the Court of Appeals District
2, not your county.
I am the 12 counties that surround
Milwaukee, but don't include it.
I am going to tell you why this race
is so important, why it is
that I'm the better qualified
candidate, and I am, and why we're
going to be successful and prevail
in April.
First of all, this race so
important because we are dealing
with a court that I believe has
lost a lot of respect in the state
of Wisconsin.
I honestly believe that people go
into that court and think that they
are not getting a fair opportunity
to be heard.
I don't know if that's true or not,
but I know the perception is that
that's what's happening.
This is a court that needs to have
a justice who has independence,
impartiality, and integrity,
and judicial restraint.
You need to elect someone, when you
look at the candidates in this race,
who has a proven track record to
do the right thing and to
follow the law and not legislate
from the bench.
You may think that it's good to have
a judge who's going to be
active and do what they want and say
what the law should be in their
mind, but that's the absolute wrong
thing you want.
This court is so important.
We have three branches of
government, and the judiciary is
set there to do one thing.
One thing only, to say what
law is.
You're going to hear from a lot of
people today who are going to talk
to you about the legislature,
and everything else, and policy.
That is not the court.
You're going to hear people talk
today talking about agendas and
mandates. That is not this court.
This court is the body
that is supposed to be sober,
quiet, calm, and
say what the law is.
And that's what I've done for the
eleven years that I've been on the
bench as opposed to my opponents
about four or five.
And that is what I will do for the
next ten years on the state supreme
court.
We are looking at a court that is
now four to three.
When I win, it will stay four to
three. We're not changing its
composition.
But the three votes are so
very important, because you need
three votes to bring a case up
from the Court of Appeals.
Right now, every year,
500 appeals
are brought up to the State Supreme
Court where they ask them to take
them, and they take about
12 or 14.
The importance is which cases
they're taking and what they're
looking at.
In the last few years, the State
Supreme Court has decided
that it has a mandate to do things
the way they want, not what
the law is.
And I'll explain one case.
Catholic charities.
Catholic charities ask for a tax
exemption because they
are a religious group.
The State Supreme court in Wisconsin
voted four to three that they were
not.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which
is not.
A body that's all one political
persuasion or agenda.
They don't have agendas, I
apologize.
They voted nine to zero that
Wisconsin was wrong.
And the reason is,
you cannot tell a religious group
what they can do and how they're
gonna act.
We have constitutional rights.
Our state Supreme Court in Wisconsin
is not looking at that.
They need someone on the
dissent, which is where I'll be, the
four to three, but you need someone
there who is going to do their job
and stand up every day.
Stand up for everyone's rights and
do just that.
Hamilton said when they founded our
country that the judiciary was
really the weakest,
least important, least significant
branch of all,
except he said the danger
would be if you unite the
judiciary and the legislature
because then you lead to tyranny.
And I'm very concerned that
in our state, the people
in this state think that's where
we're headed and perception is
very important.
We need to have justices on that
court who can stand up and say,
if I have a bias, I'm off the
case.
If you all think I have bias,
I'm of the case, I
do that every day in my job on
the Court of Appeals.
Now, I was going to tell you about
why I'm more qualified.
I have spent my entire
life leading up to this role.
I was born in Wisconsin,
elected only for three years to go
to Georgetown Law School.
I came back, I spent 20 years in
private practice.
After that, I spend five years at
the Wisconsin Department of Justice,
representing you, representing state
officials, representing the
office of people in
this government.
And then after that, I had a Dane
County judge in the smallest
of cases, ones that
people probably don't care about,
but I did, concerning
a foster child.
And I had that judge say to me, on
the record, in court, that
the law did not matter.
And I lost.
Now you may not know me well, but
once you get to know me, I don't
like to lose. And I don't like to
loose when I shouldn't lose.
So I went home and I was absolutely
devastated because I
lost that case.
That foster child lost
the rights that I thought he had
and it was never gonna change.
So I'm went home, and I talked to my
family, and I said, you know what I
can do.
So I ran for judge in my home county
of Waukesha.
I ran unopposed, which by the
way, for everybody running for
office, I highly recommend it's
the best way to run an election.
It is fantastic.
So, the only thing you have to worry
about is my campaign person,
which I had before I was unoppose,
said, don't go anywhere and say
anything stupid.
So just shut your mouth.
And on the election night, we looked
at, don't have all
these people do write-ins against
you. So that was sort of a running
joke about how many I'd get against
me. But no, there wasn't
a righting campaign.
I won, it was fantastic.
And then I ran again, so I served
seven years there and I was in every
rotation except for family.
And I was presiding judge in two of
them, including criminal during
COVID, which I can tell you was
absolutely fantastically difficult
to manage five criminal judges
when I have one courtroom open
in the building at all.
And you have to do rights for
every... Defendant, as well
as keep everyone safe because we
all thought there were all these
issues.
So after that, there was
an opening on the Court of Appeals,
I ran for that, opposed,
contested seat, a little more
difficult, but I won that and
I have loved being on the Court
Of Appeals like you would not
believe. I read all the time,
I write all the times, my driver
husband has told me that he
will take me places as long as I
read in the car, so I
do read in a car, even have a little
flashlight. So I can read when it
gets darker on these days in
Wisconsin.
So it has been my absolute pleasure
to drive around this state
and to tell everyone why this race
is so important and to you when
you look at the two candidates,
there is no question.
The choice is clear and stark.
I am a judge.
I've been a judge for 11 years.
It is who I am.
I will be the best justice that
you've had.
My opponent was a politician,
literally a member of a party
in Madison.
She was appointed by a politician
to the first bench she had.
No appointments, no party members.
And she has told you in
black and white on her website
that she will do her
job to do the
judicial, she will use a judicial
philosophy that is people based.
You're not, I don't think we have a
lot of lawyers in the room, but I'll
tell you this. One, that's not
a judicial philanthropy.
Two, what it means is
she's telling you that she's going
to operate with the same agenda and
mandate as the state Supreme Court
currently does.
She's going rule on cases based
on who you are, not
what the law says.
And that is scary.
We need a justice up there who's
not one side or the other,
who is actually independent.
You can look up my record, go to my
website.
You can see every opinion I've
published.
You can opinions I wrote on the
Circuit Court.
You can what I stand for,
how I work.
How hard I work, and that
I am the better qualified,
better judicially bound person
for this position.
Now you're gonna hear a lot of
people today, so I'm gonna stop and
just say, tell everyone in April,
this is an important election, we
are going to win this election,
and tell everyone that I need their
vote, have them look at both of us,
and the choice is clear.
So thank you for letting me come
here today to talk to you, I
appreciate it, and I
will.
Run off to the next place,
but I don't think I have time for
questions, so I appreciate everyone
here.
Thank you so very much, and I
appreciate it all.
Thank you.
Thank for letting me come.
Thank You.
No, thank you for coming.
I will. Thank so much for letting us
come and talk.