Democracy is doomed in Wisconsin! The state’s “once proud reputation as a haven for and leader in honest, clean, accountable state government” is in tatters! Wisconsin politics is now a “cesspool!”
That grim verdict was delivered by Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin via an oped in The Capital Times. Why? […]

Mr. Thomas J. Basting, Sr. is the president of the Wisconsin state bar and creator of something that calls itself the “Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee.”
Basting begins a piece in Wisconsin Lawyer with the customary throat-clearing of a high-minded, impartial observer, who intones that this time he is casting off his famous impartiality, to throw […]

An editorial in The Capital Times – Wisconsin’s “progressive” daily – blasts proposals to have a secret panel of lawyers (instead of voters) decide who sits on state benches. Their most withering comments were trained on former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has jumped into the fray by proposing that Wisconsin abolish the democratic […]

Wisconsin’s “progressive” newspaper – The Capital Times weighs in with an editorial slamming merit selection. Money quote:
… elite newspapers and organizations are proposing the replacement of an elected judiciary with a bench filled by political appointees. This so-called “merit selection” of judges blames the citizens for warping the process and suggests voters ought […]

Comments continue on the decision by Wisconsin voters to oust liberal activist Louis Butler from the state Supreme Court.
In an oped last week, Maureen Martin of the Heartland Institute points out that Butler’s appointment to the court came only after he lost his own bid for election by nearly 2:1. As a […]

Great little letter in the Wall Street Journal today about the decision of Wisconsin voters to throw out trial-lawyer supported justice on the state Supreme Court recently. Here’s an excerpt:
My oldest son turned 18 last year and was excited to be able to vote in his first election. His question to me was, “Who […]

Even the venerable Economist can fall prey to some Justice At Stake propaganda. In its latest issue, The Economist denounced American judicial elections as prone to “unbecoming hoopla.” With typical Economist wit, it looked at the political ads in some of these races as so much Habeas circus, and wondered why we Yanks […]

… on the decision by Wisconsin voters to sack Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler and replace him with a “rule of law” judge – as well as on the broader debate between elected judges and appointed judges and what’s in store for the fall elections.  Here’s a link.
 

As the smoke clears from the defeat of Louis Butler, the liberal activist Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice who had tipped the court to a 4-3 liberal majority, the usual suspects—speaking in solemn tones—are using the result as Exhibit A that the voters just can’t be trusted to get it right.
One of those suspects is […]

Law professor Ann Althouse jumps into the debate over the decision of Wisconsin voters to push out state Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler – and the merits of democratically-elected judges vs. appointed judges.
Althouse presents a pretty balanced view, but I think she misses a critical point. It’s not the people who originally brought political […]