Gov. Walker gets to appoint another state Supreme Court judge

Prosser announces retirement, replacement 
will serve until 2020 without election

Another Supreme Court vacancy for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to fill.

On Wednesday, 73-year-old Justice David Prosser announced he will retire July 31 from the state high court, after 18 years on the bench.

Walker now, apparently, can make another politically-motivated selection, less than seven months after appointing Rebecca Bradley to the state Supreme Court on Oct. 15, 2015. 

Prosser was a member of the court’s conservative, 5-2 majority, but Walker’s appointment wouldn’t necessarily change that.

“What that would assume to me, is that he would like the governor to appoint a successor who, of course, would have Republican leanings,” University of Wisconsin-La Crosse longtime political scientist Joe Heim said of Prosser’s announcement.

Unlike Bradley’s being appointed, Prosser’s successor will serve a much longer term than she did – through 2020, as opposed to Bradley’s five months – before the public can elect a replacement.

Under state law, appointees stand for election at the first year in which a Supreme Court election isn’t already scheduled. In this case, contests are already planned for 2017, ’18 and ’19.

When Bradley was appointed by Walker, she had already announced she was running for the open justice seat in April, which was a tad controversial.

Bradley was appointed after the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks on Sept. 21, 2015, at the age of 77. 

More controversy surfaced right before the election, of course, when anti-gay writings of Bradley’s surfaced from 24 years ago – during her time as a student at Marquette University.

Bradley, however, did win the election and is currently serving a 10-year term. She defeated Kloppenburg with 52 percent of the vote (1,017,083 to 925,836).

In 2011, Prosser defeated Kloppenburg by 0.5% in an election that led to a rare statewide recount.

Appointing Bradley to the high court was a stepping stone for Walker, who previously appointed her to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2012 and to the 1st District Court of Appeals last May.