In Wisconsin, can somebody please get this slug off the bench?

The face of right-wing thuggery in Wisconsin?
Quick, somebody get this goon off the bench.

"In a fit of temper, you were screaming at the chief; calling her [Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson] a 'bitch,' threatening her with '. . . I will destroy you'; and describing the means of destruction as a war against her 'and it won't be a ground war.'"

-- from an e-mail, newly made public, sent by Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley to fellow Justice David Prosser on Feb. 28, 2010 (reported by RawStory's David Edwards)

"I probably overreacted, but I think it was entirely warranted. They [Chief Justice Abrahamson and Justice Bradley] are masters at deliberately goading people into perhaps incautious statements. This is bullying and abuse of very, very long standing."

-- Justice Prosser, last week to the
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

by Ken

First, let me get this straight. Stuff like calling the Supreme Court chief justice "bitch" and telling her you're going to destroy her and it won't be a ground war -- in Justice Prosser's mind, these are "perhaps incautious statements."

And, oh yes, presumably in the light of calm reflection, it was all "entirely warranted." Well, sure, the bullying, abusive bitches made him do it.

And this guy is sitting on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and thinks voters should reelect him on April 5. Presumably, as his campaign director, Brian Nemoir, was quoted as saying in a December campaign press release: "Our campaign efforts will include building an organization that will return Justice Prosser to the bench, protecting the conservative judicial majority and acting as a common sense complement to both the new administration and Legislature."

Is there any reason to think that any of the four Republican justices on the current court think any differently? As Prosser campaign director Nemoir notes in his picturesque tribute to judicial responsibility and propriety, the balance of the court hinges on the now-upcoming election. If state Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg defeats Prosser, it switches back to a 4-3 Democratic majority, and there's hope that the court could return to concern for, you know, the law, and perhaps even occasionally put a brake on Gov. Scott Walker's novel "The law is whatever the heck I say it is" approach to governance.

As Kloppenburg put it in a Madison.com op-ed: "This race is about returning independence and impartiality to the court. "It’s about electing justices who haven’t prejudged cases and who see the judiciary as a co-equal branch of government and a check and balance against overreaching by the executive and legislative branches, not as a 'complement' to their political agenda."

Here's the start of David Edwards's RawStory report (links and footnotes onsite):

WI justice admits he called female colleague a ‘bitch,’ threatened to ‘destroy’ her

By David Edwards
March 21, 2011 @ 3:06 pm

The anger of one conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice boiled over last year when he called a fellow justice a "bitch" and threatened to "destroy" her, according to a published report.

Justice David Prosser reportedly made the comments to Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson following a February 2010 debate over whether another justice should have been forced off criminal cases.

"In the context of this, I said, 'You are a total bitch,'" Prosser admitted to the Mulwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel [1] last week.

The conservative justice told the paper that he had made the comments because Abrahamson had tried to undermine and embarrass him.

"I probably overreacted, but I think it was entirely warranted," he said. "They (Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley) are masters at deliberately goading people into perhaps incautious statements. This is bullying and abuse of very, very long standing."

Bradley allowed the paper to review emails sent between the justices after the blow up.

"In a fit of temper, you were screaming at the chief; calling her a 'bitch,' threatening her with '. . . I will destroy you'; and describing the means of destruction as a war against her 'and it won't be a ground war,'" one email sent from Bradley to Prosser on Feb. 18, 2010 said.

The admission that he one called the chief justice a "bitch" follows a spotted history on women's isssues.

In 1990, while serving as a Wisconsin state Representative, Prosser argued [2] that teen women would lie about being raped to get an abortion.

As a Supreme Court justice in 2010, he voted to uphold a circuit court decision [3] that said the City of Milwaukee’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance did not adequately disclose that leave could be used related to domestic and sexual violence.

While District Attorney of Outagamie County in 1979, Prosser had also refused to prosecute a priest that had allegedly sexually abused two children.

"I was ready to take the stand," Troy Merryfield, one of the abused children, told the Journal Sentinel years later [4]. "He (Prosser) said it would be too embarrassing for a kid my age and said what jury would believe a kid testifying against a priest?"

Howie's written about the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, of course, but in general I've been alarmed by how little we've been hearing about it. Perhaps the situation is different in-state. Still, I worry about surly undercurrents in and out of the state that may be supporting Governor Walker, albeit not as vocally as before as more and more Wisconsinites recoil at his Stalinist coup fronting for the Koch brothers and their allies. And if money can make a difference, I think of Iowa and worry that the Right will easily shovel in whatever it takes.


UPDATE: WHAT YOU CAN DO

A commenter has left a link for more alarming information about Justice Prosser, and also a link for the Kloppenburg campaign with ways you can help, in-state or out, including phone-banking. I really hate judicial elections, but where that's the system, we have no choice but to compete as hard as the other side. Again, just think of Iowa. Right now the Wisconsin election is a really important one.

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