Posted on 05/18/2015 3:20:27 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Three Wisconsin Supreme Court justices skipped a ceremony Monday to swear in recent Marquette University Law School graduates, amid a bitter dispute over who should be in charge of the state's high court.
It was the first time the court was to meet as a group since conservatives who control the court voted to make Patience Roggensack chief justice. Shirley Abrahamson, who had held the job for 19 years, has contended she remains chief justice and has sued over the issue in federal court in Madison.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson, who is hearing that case, declined to issue an order Friday allowing Abrahamson to serve as chief justice while she pursues her case, and signaled she would have a difficult time ultimately winning her lawsuit.
Monday's ceremony showed relationships on the court remain strained. Roggensack has said repairing the court's reputation is a top priority.
Apparently boycotting Monday's event were Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and N. Patrick Crooks. Those are the three justices who did not vote for Roggensack as chief justice and contended the email vote putting her in place was improperly conducted.
Abrahamson and Bradley are the court's liberals. Crooks is a swing vote who has sharply criticized Abrahamson for her lawsuit but also said there should be a transition plan to transfer power to a new chief justice. Crooks had hoped to be the one to serve as chief justice.
Supporting Roggensack are her three fellow conservatives on the court — Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser and Annette Ziegler.
Those four marched Monday into a packed Capitol hearing room to admit the new graduates into the state bar. Roggensack sat in the middle seat that Abrahamson had occupied for nearly two decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Ideally, the libs should be made so upset at their lack of power that they retire.
Why didn’t the judge just toss the case? Fed courts have NO jurisdiction.
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