MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Newly-released e-mails exposed more friction among the seven Wisconsin Supreme Court justices.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained copies of the messages, in which two justices accused new Chief Justice Pat Roggensack of violating court rules.
The e-mails said Roggensack scheduled a conference without the required consent of all 7 justices. The May 18th conference was set to review three cases.
Patrick Crooks, the court’s swing justice, said he objected to Roggensack’s written demand that his votes on the 3 cases must be received before the conference, giving him just two days to rule — or else he would be listed as withdrawing.
In response, Roggensack wrote that she would try to accommodate the votes if they came in a day late.
An assistant to Roggensack wrote that the conference was on the same day that the court admitted Marquette Law School graduates into the State Bar. The court’s only two liberal justices — Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley — wrote that they couldn’t be there.
Roggensack wrote it was important for them to attend, and it was unfortunate that they and Crooks have “chosen” not to.
The latest friction comes as Abrahamson continues to pursue a federal lawsuit seeking to delay the constitutional change which allowed the court’s four-member conservative majority to elect Roggensack to replace Abrhamson as the chief.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)