April Fool's or Election Day...

At least the nasty campaign is over, though it does mean another WMC paid for seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This is quickly becoming the norm in the Cheese State, and I sincerely hope something gives soon. If the current system continues, it will be exceedingly difficult to believe in the Court as a neutral arbiter of disputes...

I have admittedly not been pleased with the outcome of the last two elections, but the ends are less troublesome than the means. The current system is generating candidates that are, frankly, under qualified or unqualified. As much as I hate to admit it, I would take the appointment process that gives me Roberts all day in comparison to an electoral process that brings Gableman to the bench.

So, on April Fool's Day 2008 the citizens of Wisconsin (or a small fraction of them) turned out to elect a less than stellar legal mind to the Supreme Court based upon his campaign of being a "judicial conservative" and a promise to not "legislate from the bench." He also promised to be tough on crime, which in Wisconsin roughly equates to being tough on blacks. We shall see how much legislation comes from the bench, but I'm guessing with a conservative majority it will be more than was bargained for...

Conservative groups are celebrating the defeat of the first sitting Supreme Court Justice in more than 40 years, an outcome which is expected to tilt the balance of power on the high court to the right.

In a bitter, expensive race in which both candidates were accused of being soft on crime -- and spent little time talking about the myriad other issues that occupy most of the high court's caseload -- Burnett County Judge Michael Gableman, 41, unseated Justice Louis Butler, 56, on Tuesday.

Butler, the first African-American to serve on the high court, was also the first Supreme Court Justice to be defeated for re-election since Chief Justice George Currie, who was ousted in 1967 after he allowed the Milwaukee Braves baseball team to relocate to Atlanta.