On the homepage, I profile Shirley Abrahamson, chief justice of Wisconsin’s supreme court. From all appearances, she’s an activist judge par excellence. Besides arrogating to the court legislative powers, she’s trying to unseat her conservative colleague, Justice David Prosser, so her former intern, JoAnne Kloppenburg, can secure a liberal majority on the court, a source tells me. Here’s the lede:
Atop Wisconsin’s supreme court sits Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. And an unhappy chief is she. Conservatives outnumber liberals on the court by four to three, forcing Abrahamson to dissent in 37 percent of the cases during the 2009–10 term. Meanwhile, the legal challenge to Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill is rushing toward the court’s docket.
If only she had one more vote.