CJ Abrahamson Discusses Meaning Of Laws (Far Left WI SC Justice Explains All)

Portage Daily Register ^ | March 1, 2009 | Lyn Jerde

[Diana in Wisconsin]

For part of late Sunday afternoon, the auditorium at the Portage Center for the Arts became a law school classroom.

Let's imagine that we're all judges, said Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, noting that at least two audience members - Daniel George and James Miller - actually are circuit court judges.

Let's imagine, Abrahamson said, that a city had a five-word ordinance: "No vehicles on State Street."

Now suppose that police ticketed a young man who was walking his broken bicycle along that street, headed for a repair shop.

Should the judge find the man guilty of violating the ordinance?

Some raised their hands to say yes, others to say no.

What this shows, according to Abrahamson, is that even intelligent people can have differing opinions about issues.

"You're thinking, ‘What is proper? What is the objective of the ordinance?' You fit your decision into the objective of having a pedestrian mall with the ambience of comfort," she said.

So, if a broken bicycle would be one vehicle that might be allowable on the pedestrian mall, she asked, then how about a broken-down car? How about a firetruck or ambulance? How about a wheelchair?

Abrahamson has been a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court since her 1976 appointment by then-Gov. Patrick Lucey. She became the court's first female chief justice in 1996 and is standing for election for the fourth time. She faces a challenge from Jefferson County Judge Randy Koschnick in the April 7 election, for a 10-year term.

Abrahamson said Wisconsin judges have been elected since Wisconsin became a state in 1848, and that's the way it should be. She said she favors public financing for judicial elections as one possible way to lessen the influence of special interest groups in judicial elections.

But once a judge is elected, Abrahamson said, no one - not even elected officials or big campaign contributors - is allowed to try to tell a judge how to rule on a particular case. That's the meaning of an independent judiciary, she said.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or an independent," she said. "It doesn't matter whether you like bicycles or whether you like pedestrian malls. What matters is, what does the law say? Then apply it."

Audience member Donald Nelson of Wisconsin Dells, a member of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, told Abrahamson that in his observation, sometimes there's a difference between law and justice.

"I see it in elected officials, and even in the Supreme Court," he said, "where, even if they're following the law, justice has not been done."

Abrahamson responded by telling a story of a ruling she once made in which a farmer sued to stop a utility company from taking, by eminent domain, farmland that had been in the farmer's family since 1830, for use as a nuclear power plant site.

The farmer contended that the utility should not take his land until it had all the necessary permits to build the plant.

But under the law, Abrahamson said, the utility only had to prove that it had most of its permits and was likely to obtain the rest. So, she wrote a unanimous opinion that the utility company was allowed to take the land.

"I felt awful about it," she said. However, she noted that the utility company never built the power plant, and eventually sold the land back to the farmer, at a lower price than the utility had paid him for it.

When an audience member asked Abrahamson how to persuade young adults to vote in judicial elections, Abrahamson noted that turnout in Wisconsin spring elections, from voters of all ages, is about 20 percent.

"I say to young voters and to older voters, study the qualifications of each judicial candidate," she said. "See if they're selling you a bill of goods. See if they're really talking about issues that pertain to the court, or if they're manufacturing issues.

"Anyone who doesn't vote," she added, "should be ashamed. People are dying across the world to get the right to vote."

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Oh, Puhleeeze!

[Raycpa]

If he is found guilty, the legislature would right better laws.

[seekthetruth]

ping

[Doc91678]

As one attorney once told me about a Judge's decision. It's too vague. The vehicle is not described. Emergency vehicles would be allowed on the pedistrian walk. Just as police vehicles would be allowed.