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Jill Karofsky: “In some states they have had very robust litigation…”

Featuring: Jill Karofsky, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court

WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky

Published October 23, 2025 | Video Starts at 43:32

Can you elaborate on the love letter thing? What's going on? So I think that. Yeah, thank you. In some states they have had very robust litigation regarding their state constitutions. We haven't had that as much in Wisconsin. And in some states they have really reached out to members of the bar and asked them. (43:32–43:42)

CLAIM

Asserts that Wisconsin has not had as much robust litigation regarding its state constitution compared to some other states.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Jill Karofsky

“Our [Wisconsin] constitution is one of the oldest constitutions in the country. It's been amended over 150 times.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 12:32-42:26
“In 2015 when Governor Walker signed into law a provision that allowed for unlimited contributions to political parties.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 33:41-33:50
“We haven't had a constitutional convention since 1848.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 42:26-42:31
“The code of judicial ethics prevents me from answering questions about any matter that is currently before the court or any issue or matter…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 04:02-04:16
“We currently have four members from the Capitol Police Department who provide security for judges and justices throughout the state of…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 08:24-08:34
“We have funding for those four officers. The court system does. Through August of 2026.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 08:44-08:51
“I do think that we will be able to get continued funding for those positions through the biennium.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 09:05-09:12
“Right now we only have funding through for those four positions until the end of August of 2026.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 09:31-09:38
“The threats to us have increased. I got on the court in 2020, and I would say that they have continued.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 11:40-11:50
“We get many, many threats. Yes. I would say that in the past few weeks, I have talked to three or four of my colleagues about specific…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 12:01-12:16
“The Supreme Court is responsible for overseeing an entire branch of government.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 15:32-15:39
“We're responsible for training all of those judges and justices.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 15:45-15:51
“We are responsible for who becomes an attorney in this state through the Board of Bar Examiners.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 15:56-16:02
“We are responsible for lawyer discipline through the Office of Lawyer Regulation.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 16:01-16:06
“We are responsible for judicial discipline through the Judicial Commission.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 16:06-16:11
“We're responsible for making sure that the State law library, the Lavinia Goodell State Law Library, and the two satellites in Madison and…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 16:10-16:24
“The crown jewel of the Wisconsin state court system is ccap, the Circuit Court Access Program.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 16:32-16:39
“There's a narrative out there that every decision that this court hands down is going to be 4, 3. And that's just not what the evidence…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 20:43-20:53
“If you look at the decisions that we have issued the last two years, you will find that most of our decisions, we are far less likely to be…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 20:52-21:08
“Justice Rebecca Dalit's election in 2018, my election in 2020, Justice Protosiewicz election in 2023, Justice Crawford's election in 2025…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 21:30-21:43
“The Wisconsin electorate is intelligent, they are informed.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 21:43-21:49
“I think what they saw was a court that was going too far to rubber stamping a right wing agenda.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 21:48-21:56
“I pressed him for one example of one time when he did not find in favor of Governor Walker or the Republican legislature or the right wing…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 22:28-22:51
“We had a case, a Couple of years ago where an individual who had been convicted of a crime of domestic violence went and applied for a…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 23:42-23:52
“This perpetrator was convicted of a crime of disorderly conduct.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 24:04-24:09
“Under federal law, did that qualify for a crime, a disqualifying crime under the concealed carry law?”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 24:10-24:19
“I had to say, this individual, under Wisconsin law and under the federal law is allowed to get a firearm, allowed to have a carry conceal…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 24:27-24:35
“I wrote a dissent and I put in that dissent. I explained to the legislature how they could close this loophole.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 24:35-24:43
“It is almost as if in the history of humankind, the history of America, the history of Wisconsin, women were non existent.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 26:49-27:02
“Do I think that there is a problem with six of the seven members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court being female? No.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 27:02-27:02
“We should be elected. It's been in our constitution since our state was founded in 1848.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 32:06-32:13
“It started in 2010. It started with the United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 33:26-33:33
“In order to fix the problem, we need to go back to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision. They need to undo Citizens United.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 33:52-34:01
“The legitimacy of the courts and the court system is really, really important, especially right now.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 36:27-36:33
“The biggest problem I see with the shadow docket is that the opinions are not laid out.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 36:33-36:39
“People don't know what the law is. They don't know what the analysis is.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 37:41-37:44
“The question is whether or not the court is going to look at a recusal rule. And my answer to you is, yes.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 38:50-38:56
“We had a case two years ago, I think Benuelos, that had to do with some electronic records, electronic medical records.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 40:48-40:57
“The Wisconsin Constitution...provides more rights than the federal Constitution.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 42:15-42:57
“United States Supreme Court has decided that they're not going to rule on cases like abortion or redistricting.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 42:38-42:43
“The opinion in that case which I authored said that [the legislative committee review] was unconstitutional because it had the effect of…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 46:14-46:27
“In general, we are understaffed across the board in the court system, but the court of appeals definitely is.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 47:13-47:20
“We've added some more staff [to the court of appeals].”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 47:48-47:50
“We are always looking for ways to enhance and expand something like CCAP.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 48:44-48:51
“We have a crisis in the state when it comes to attorney recruitment and attorney retention, and especially in rural areas, we do not have…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 50:53-51:04
“Criminal defendants are being harmed the most because they are being forced to stay in jail far too long.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 51:03-51:07
“When Annette Ziegler was chief justice, she started a committee, an attorney retention committee.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 51:13-51:19
“One of the things that I'm working very, very hard on is to make it easier for people who take a bar exam outside the state to be able to…”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 51:24-51:33
“We need more mental health courts. We need more OWI courts. We need more drug courts, we need more veterans courts.”
WisPolitics Luncheon: Chief Justice Karofsky | Uploaded October 23, 2025 | 51:57-52:04