Perhaps the State Bar of Wisconsin's character and fitness evaluation should be administered periodically, starting with the Supreme Court.
"The actions of [Judge Maryann Sumi] exceeded the court's authority and must be vacated." — Prosser, J., concurring.Riiight.
"We suspect that the court's problems will improve markedly after the heat of this election ... We recommend Prosser." — Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial page, 04.02.11.Okaaay.
Remarkable prescience, says blog commenter.
Imagine, though, if Prosser resigns and Walker appoints Mac Davis.
Yikes.
16 comments:
"I do not intend to go gently into that good night." Prosser, J., 4/18/11.
Don't we have the Constitutional right to remove most of them (Judges) for bad behavior?
The federal Constitution contains that "good behavior" language but certainly there's a number of ways to remove a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice.
The man is unstable and needs to be held to account, whether through administrative action, indictment, impeachment, or recall.
Forget the JCC, I'm wondering why he didn't take a ride in a squad car.
He would have if it was a domestic violence call.
How would it help the average person if Justices were removed?
What's going to do him in is that everyone, everyone knows this is wrong and out of bounds. The Republicans themselves will be calling for his head soon, because he's hurting them politically.
Prosser is a special case with a history of this kind of thing and a position in society where he has been able to do as he pleases for decades without anyone to discipline him. All the same, it indicates the great strain the Walkerites are under, playing defense constantly and into the foreseeable future.
Anon 10:52, they shape the law so to the extent that law affects the average person, it does depend who's on the court. But for most people I suspect the court's deliberations barely affect them, if at all.
It wouldn't necessarily help the average person, but it might help the civility of the court and sends a clear message that what Prosser allegedly did is deplorable. If the allegations are true, the man seems like he's coming unhinged.
It makes you wonder though, does Prosser have to clear his chokings by the WMC first?
This will be interesting. Bet the farm Lueders's sources are solid.
If I understand the process correctly, an appointed justice must stand for election in the first year no other justice's term expires. Which would be 2012.
from a response to your April 5 post: "One observation: you appear to reason that it cannot be true that Prosser has an anger management (or however you want to characterize it) problem because when you met him he did not behave as a 'kind of unhinged misogynist nutcase' and therefore any assertion that he is anything other than 'kind and considerate' is 'patently ridiculous.' ... You do not address the possibility that both things are true of him: that he is sometimes kind and considerate, and that he is also sometimes (leave aside the straw man hyperbole) a person who lashes out in startling anger, displays irrational paranoia in editorial board meetings and debates, and has shown a bit of a misogynistic streak too. I get that the two images are hard to reconcile, but he would hardly be the first person with a disturbing mean streak who was known to many as the nicest guy you'd ever meet."
Yep. That comment mischaracterizes what I did say but at the time I believed the evidence for some of the more overheated personal criticisms of Prosser was a bit flimsy.
walker appoints the successor if prosser resigns? yikes, i mistakenly thought special election. the way this court is going in such a gothic fashion, soon it will be The House of the Seven Gablemans.
In case of a vacancy, the governor appoints a successor pending an election in the first April following in which there is not otherwise a Supreme court election. According to the schedule on the Wikipedia page, that would be April 2012.
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