Michael Gableman

Michael Gableman was a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He was elected to this office on April 1, 2008, for a 10-year term that expired on July 31, 2018.^[1] He did not seek re-election in 2018.^[2]

Education

Gableman graduated from New Berlin West High School in 1984. He received his bachelor's degree in education and history from Ripon College in 1988 and his J.D. from Hamline University School of Law in 1993.^[3]

Career

After college, Gableman taught American history at George Washington High School in the Milwaukee Public School System from 1988 to 1989 before pursuing his legal career.^[4]

After graduating from law school, Gableman served as a district court law clerk in Douglas County, Minnesota, for two years, and then as a clerk at the circuit court level in Brown County, Wisconsin, for one year. In 1996, he became the half-time assistant district attorney in Langlade County while working part-time at a private law office and also serving as deputy corporation counsel for Forest County. One year later, he became the assistant district attorney for Marathon County. He then served as the district attorney of Ashland County from 1999 to 2002.

In 2002, Gableman was appointed to the Burnett County Circuit Court. He was then elected Circuit Court Judge for Burnett County in 2003, winning 78 percent of the vote.^[3] While in Burnett County, Gableman established an inmate community service program, a juvenile community service program, a drug and alcohol court, and a restorative justice program for which he served as chairman of the board for six years. ^[5] He also taught for three semesters as an adjunct professor of law at Hamline University School of Law, teaching criminal procedure and professional responsibility.^[6]

Gableman was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2008.^[1][3]

Awards and associations

• Member, Fraternal Order of Moose
• Past Grand Knight, Ashland Council, Knights of Columbus Masons
• Member, Rotary International^[3]

Elections

2018

See also: Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, 2018

Michael Gableman did not file to run for re-election.

2008

Gableman won election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2008, defeating incumbent Louis Butler with 51.19 percent of the vote, and winning 60 of the 72 counties in the state. ^[7][8]

Candidate	Incumbent	Election %
Michael Gableman	No	51.1%
Louis Butler	Yes	48.5%

^[9]

Political affiliation

Only nine states hold partisan elections for their appellate courts. Other states hold nonpartisan elections or use a combination of appointments and retention elections.

Nonpartisan elections in some states require judges to declare their partisan affiliations; in other states, judges are not required to declare a political affiliation and in fact may be prohibited from doing so.

Ballotpedia collects information about the political and ideological leanings of judges to offer better context for court decisions.

Wisconsin Supreme Court justices are selected in nonpartisan judicial elections by the voters of Wisconsin. In the case of a vacancy, the governor can appoint a new justice, but that justice must stand for re-election.

Elections and appointment

Gableman was appointed to the Burnett County Circuit Court in 2002 by Gov. Scott McCallum (R). After that, he was re-elected to the circuit court and then elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in nonpartisan elections.^[3]

During the 2008 Supreme Court election, a progressive third-party group called the Greater Wisconsin Committee ran an ad criticizing Gov. McCallum's decision to appoint Gableman to the Burnett County Court because Gableman lived outside of the county and was not listed as a final by the judicial selection committee. The organization also pointed out that Gableman had donated to McCallum's re-election campaign, alleging that the donation had influenced McCallum's decision. Gableman denounced the ad as "smear tactics" from a "shadowy interest group". Gableman's opponent Louis Butler did not refute the content of the ad, but he asked the group to allow he and Gableman to run their own campaigns.^[10]

Political contributions

According to publicly available campaign finance records, Gableman has consistently given to Republican candidates in the state of Wisconsin. He has also given to at least one Democratic candidate for Wisconsin Assembly and a number of nonpartisan judicial candidates.^[11]

Political donors

The following table includes the five organizations that have donated the most to Gableman's campaign in his 2008 election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court according to publicly available campaign finance records.^[12]

Endorsements and scorecards

Gableman was endorsed by a number of Wisconsin Republican officials, including then-Congressman Paul Ryan (R) and Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus. He also earned the endorsement of R.J. Lurquin, president of the Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association.^[13]

Political ideology

See also: Political ideology of State Supreme Court Justices

In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.

Gableman received a campaign finance score of 1.35, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was more conservative than the average score of 0.42 that justices received in Wisconsin.

The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.^[14]

Noteworthy events

Judicial commission complaint (2008)

On October 7, 2008, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed a complaint against Justice Gableman over an advertisement used during his 2008 campaign against Justice Louis Butler.^[15] On November 19, 2008, Gableman issued a response to the complaint, stating that his First Amendment rights were violated and that campaign advertising should be considered free speech.^[16]

Ad in question

The television advertisement in question referred to a case that Butler worked on when he was a public defender. Butler represented Reuben Lee Mitchell from 1985 to 1988 in State v. Reuben Lee Mitchell. That case was Mitchell’s appeal of his conviction in circuit court for molesting an 11-year-old girl.^[15]

The abridged audio text of the ad was as follows:

The section of the ad in question was, "Butler found a loophole. Mitchell went on to molest another child."^[15] The second molestation was not, as some thought the ad implied, a direct consequence of Butler's loophole. Butler successfully argued before an appellate panel that the trial court improperly admitted certain evidence, such as the age of the girl, which likely prejudiced the jury. The panel ordered a new trial, but the supreme court reversed, holding that the error did not affect the trial's fairness. Mitchell remained in prison until he was released on parole in 1992. Three years later, Mitchell went on to rape another child.^[15]

The judicial commission said Gableman's ad "does extreme violence to the public's confidence in the integrity of Wisconsin's judicial system."^[15] The filing also mentioned: "The false statement of fact in the advertisement is that Louis Butler was in some way responsible for the release from prison of Reuben Lee Mitchell and for Mitchell's subsequent crime. It is accomplished by the conflation of four sentences into one lie."^[18]

On July 8, 2009, attorneys representing Gableman said that the complaint filed against their client was considered a "form of harassment and punishment by the state".^[15][18]

The judicial commission requested that Gableman's colleagues on the court discipline him on the claim that the ad intentionally misled voters about Butler.

Judicial panel decision

A judicial conduct panel was designated to hear the case under Wisconsin Statute § 757.87(3). The three-judge panel, comprised of lower court judges, was united in its ruling that the complaint be dismissed. Two judges on the panel agreed that the ad was misleading but did not contain outright lies. The other judge believed the ad contained a lie, but that First Amendment rights protected the speech from regulation.^[19] The panel stated:

Outcome

Though the three-judge panel recommended the case be dropped, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard a case against their colleague regarding the negative ad. The justices were deadlocked with three justices on each side of the issue. Justices Shirley Abrahamson, N. Patrick Crooks and Ann Walsh Bradley concluded that Gableman lied about Butler. The other three justices, David T. Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler agreed with the Judicial Conduct Panel that the case be dismissed.^[20] Because the burden of proof fell on the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, no action was taken against Gableman.^[21][22]

Notable Cases

Some notable cases authored by Justice Gableman include:

• Madison Teachers, Inc. v. Scott Walker ^[23]
• Board of Regents - UW System v. Jeffrey S. Decker ^[24]
• State v. Abbott Labs ^[25]
• McConkey v. Van Hollen ^[26]
• Coulee Catholic Schools v. LIRC ^[27]
• Horst v. John Deere & Company ^[28]
• Star Direct v. Dal Pra ^[29]

Horst v. John Deere & Company

The main question before the Court was whether Wisconsin had adopted, or should have adopted, a bystander contemplation test. An infant, by his guardian ad litem, brought a products liability action against a manufacturer of a riding lawnmower after the infant's feet were severed when the lawnmower was operated in reverse by the infant's father.^[30]

The Court held that the consumer contemplation test, and not a bystander contemplation test, governed all strict products liability claims in Wisconsin, including cases where a bystander was injured. While bystanders were permitted to recover damages when injured by an unreasonably dangerous product, the determination of whether the product was unreasonably dangerous was based on the expectations of the ordinary consumer. This opinion re-stated the axiom that "sometimes accidents happen."^[30]

Justice Gableman also wrote a concurring opinion in this case to emphasize the deficiencies in utilizing the consumer contemplation test. In design defects cases, Justice Gableman stated he would adopt the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability, because it is a "more appropriate framework for meeting the needs of Wisconsin consumers, businesses, and those whose lives are affected by commerce in the state."^[30]

John Doe investigations

See also: John Doe investigations related to Scott Walker

Two John Doe investigations, beginning in 2010 and ending in 2015, were launched by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm (D) into the activities of staff and associates of Gov. Scott Walker (R).^[31] The Wisconsin Supreme Court officially put an end to the investigations in a 4-2 ruling on July 16, 2015, noting that "a state law outlawing such coordination was 'unconstitutionally overbroad and vague under the First Amendment'" and that "the special prosecutor's legal theory is unsupported in either reason or law."^[32][33] Gableman wrote the majority opinion, stating:^[34]

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Michael Gableman Wisconsin Supreme Court. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

External links

• Legal Newsline, "Wis. justice sees no need to recuse self," January 15, 2012
• Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, "State Supreme Court upholds gay marriage ban," June 30, 2010

Footnotes