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Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice accuses liberal majority of staging a 'coup' (apnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by NightGaunts@kbin.social to c/politics@lemmy.world

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The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court told the new liberal majority in a scathing email that they had staged a “coup” when they voted recently to weaken her powers and hire a new director of state courts.

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[-] Ertebolle@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

She was elected by the conservative majority to a second two-year term as chief justice in May.

This seems like a pretty stupid system, honestly - when the composition of the court changes there should be a new election, fixed terms for chief justices that overlap an election for another seat make no sense.

EDIT: apparently this was a recent change, in a referendum, replacing a previous system where they conservatives were stuck with a liberal chief they didn't like; from Wikipedia:

After passage of a referendum on April 7, 2015, the chief justice of the court is elected for a term of 2 years by the vote of a majority of the justices then serving on the court, although the justice so elected may decline the appointment. Previous to the change, the justice with the longest continuous service on the court served as the chief justice. Opponents of the referendum called it an attempt to remove longtime Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a member of the court's liberal minority, while supporters called it an effort to promote democracy on the court.

So they literally passed a referendum to fix the problem of the chief justice not matching the politics of the majority, and now they're mad that the liberal justices are trying to fix the same problem again.

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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023

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