Four justices boycott part of administrative meeting (WI Supreme Court)

JS Online ^ | 4-25-12 | Patrick Marley

[afraidfortherepublic]

A majority of the state Supreme Court boycotted part of an administrative meeting Wednesday, believing Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson was improperly trying to take up an issue.

The development was the latest sign that the deeply fractured court will be discussing considerably less routine business in public.

In 1999, the court became one of the first - if not the first - high courts in the country to take up the bulk of its administrative matters in public. But in January, four of the seven members of the court voted to discuss much of its work behind closed doors.

Abrahamson wanted to write a dissent to that decision, and she contended the court needed to take a final vote on the matter in public on Wednesday, when court members would sign onto either the majority opinion or the dissent.

The court met in the morning publicly on some other matters and was to return at 1:30 p.m. to take up the final rule change that would close future meetings. The four in the majority did not show up.

Abrahamson convened the meeting at 1:45 p.m. She said she had received an email from Justice Patience Roggensack saying she would not attend the afternoon meeting as long as an "improper item" remained on the agenda.

"The court has made a decision about what can appear on an agenda or be discussed in conference and I will honor the decision of the court," Roggensack wrote in her email.

Abrahamson said she believed the matter had to be discussed publicly until it was finalized, at which point it would go into effect. She instructed Supreme Court Marshal Tina Nodolf to ask the majority justices to cast their votes from their chambers, and fifteen minutes later Nodolf reported the four had voted to ...

[afraidfortherepublic]

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