Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor has repeatedly violated a judicial ethics rule she introduced as a member of the Assembly by repeatedly ruling on cases involving the Sierra Club, a group with which she has deep ties.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor has deep financial and ideological ties to the Sierra Club but has refused to commit to recusing herself from cases involving the environmental activist group, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively.
Making matters worse, as a member of the Wisconsin Legislature, Taylor authored legislation that would have forced judges to recuse themselves from cases involving parties with such close ties to the judge.
Campaign finance records show the Wisconsin Sierra Club Education Committee, the group’s political arm, donated $1,000 to Taylor’s first Wisconsin Assembly campaign in 2011. Taylor, in turn, contributed $100 to the committee in 2014.
While serving as a Democratic state representative, Taylor was a Sierra Club member and joined the group in opposing legislation to ease restrictions on new nuclear power plants. She also backed measures aligned with the organization’s agenda, including evaluating the “social cost of carbon emissions,” drawing criticism from the Wisconsin Farm Bureau for prioritizing environmental goals over private property rights.
As a legislator, Taylor sponsored Assembly Bill 588, which would have required judges to disqualify themselves from cases if they or their campaigns received $1,000 or more from a party involved. The bill failed.
Taylor has distanced herself from her own proposal during her Supreme Court run. In several interviews, she has said she no longer makes policy as a judge and instead supports reviewing recusal rules with public input, while insisting she decides recusals case-by-case under existing ethical rules.
Critics argue this stance risks violating the Wisconsin Code of Judicial Conduct, which demands judges avoid even the appearance of bias or impropriety. Although the code states that lawful campaign contributions alone do not require recusal, Taylor’s long personal membership in the Sierra Club and their mutual donations create a deeper entanglement.
The Sierra Club has appeared before Wisconsin courts in high-profile cases, including challenges to natural gas plants, solar farm approvals, mining regulations, and pipeline projects.
Taylor has participated in multiple cases involving solar energy and a gas plant permit where the Sierra Club had a vested interest. In 2022, Taylor was part of a three-judge panel that approved the Koshkonong Solar Energy Center, which the Sierra Club publicly celebrated as a major victory.
“Today’s approval of the Koshkonong Solar Energy Center by the PSC is a significant step forward,” the group said in a news release championing the ruling.
Taylor’s refusal to apply the strict recusal standard she once championed underscores a troubling double standard in her personal ethics and creates the potential for extreme conflicts of interest in cases that could come before her on Wisconsin’s highest court.
Taylor faces conservative Appeals Court judge Maria Lazar in the April 7th election.
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