Recusal Not Required

A litigant in a hotly-contested defamation suit sought the recusal of a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice on a variety of grounds that included political support of the justice by opposing counsel and the judge’s appearance at a fund raiser in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The petition was filed after the court had rendered an adverse judgment in the underlying case. The supreme court today denied the recusal motion in the attached opinion. The court determined that the justice had not sought the endorsement of counsel and did not engage in any impropriety in attending the rally:

Inaddition to there being no requirement that a judicial candidate disclose allcontributions to his or her campaign, the record before us does not supportDonohoo’s assertion that Justice Butler violated his campaign promise regardingcontributions. According to thematerials Donohoo has submitted, Justice Butler said he would refusecontributions from parties with pending cases before the court, but wouldaccept and disclose donations from attorneys with pending cases. From the record before us, it appears this isprecisely what happened. Justice Butler accepted and disclosed a $300contribution from Attorney Pines. As theJudicial Commission noted, Bock and Irvings were not parties to a pending action. In addition, nowhere does Donohoo assert that Justice Butler knew thatBock or Irvingswere board members of Fair Wisconsin. The code of judicial conduct does not require judicial candidates toattempt to research every possible organization with which contributors mayhave an affiliation. Such a requirementwould be unduly burdensome to candidates for judicial office and we decline toimpose it.

As to Donohoo’s claim that Justice Butler acted improperly inattending the fund raiser, the Judicial Commission noted that “[j]udgesand candidates for judicial office can announce their views on political andlegal issues as long as they are not pledges or promises to decide cases in acertain way.”

The court also was troubled by the timing of the motion. (Mike Frisch)