It may be short on actual names attached to the attributed version, but Christian Schneider put up the most-complete timeline yet of a version of the events surrounding the incident between Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley, extending from before the incident itself to the leak of the news to Soros-funded “media”, over at National Review. Let’s see if I can do the Cliff Notes’ version:
– The week prior to the incident, three of the justices were prepared to issue an order on the case of Act 10. Prosser wanted to delay some to avoid the appearance of rushing as oral arguments occured on 6/6, and apparently reached a deal with Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson that the order would be issued on 6/14.
– On 6/13, no notice that an order would be forthcoming had been made, so at 5:30 pm, Prosser and the other conservative Justices went looking for Abrahamson to get an explanation. They found her in Bradley’s office.
– Prosser remained outside the office and got into a heated discussion with Abrahamson over the issue of timing of the release of the order.
– Bradley rushed out to confront Prosser, with one source saying she was shaking a fist in his face and another saying they were “nose to nose”.
– Prosser pushed Bradley about the shoulders to get her out of his face, and in the course of that, contacted her neck. At the same time, another Justice was attempting to pull Bradley back from Prosser.
– On 6/15, 2 days after he had been notified of the incident by Bradley, Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs talked to all 7 Justices, including the not-present Justice Patrick Crooks, about violence in the workplace. No further action appears to have been made by the Capitol Police, which has jurisdiction in the Capitol building and thus the Supreme Court offices, and to date, nobody has pressed criminal charges.
I do recommend, as always, reading the entire piece. There are a bunch of details I left out of the above summary.
Revisions/extensions (10:10 pm 6/28/2011) – Two people who have been following the ins and outs of the Supreme Court longer than I have weighed in on just how long the Court has been dysfunctional, and who the constant in the dysfunctionality is.
John Mercure of WTMJ-AM interviewed former Supreme Court Justice William Callow (he served between 1977 and 1992 and still is an active reserve judge) on his show this afternoon, and Callow fingered Abrahamson as the chief troublemaker.
Meanwhile, Rick Esenberg, in a comment on his Sunday morning take, remembered that the majority of the court had endorsed Abrahamson’s opponent…in 1999.
I note two things – the second-longest serving Justice (Bradley) joined the Court in 1995, and three current Justices were not on the Court in 1999.
Also, welcome Memeorandum readers.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270679/more-details-emerge-wisconsin-s-chokegate-christian-schneider
VERY interesting…..
I’ll preface my comment by saying that, given the nuttiness that seems to occur in Madison on any given day, I sure am glad I don’t live there. I’m convinced that someone has put something in either the beer or the cheese.
The report given in the National Review seems to be the most detailed accounting of what happened given to date. That said, one has to wonder what, if anything, will happen to Justice Bradley should it prove to be true that she accosted Justice Prosser and all he did was try to push her off of him? It seems that there were numerous witnesses in the room, including the person that had to physically pull her off of Justice Prosser. If the report is true, it is also telling that none of the Justices felt it necessary for Justice Prosser to get “anger management” counseling. As the report says, if he did nothing wrong, why would he need it? Perhaps it is Justice Bradley that is in need of such counseling. And, if all of this is true, it is Justice Bradley that should be tendering her resignation.
As to Chief Justice Abrahamson, given her complete lack of control over the Court and, it appears, her contribution to the acrimony, perhaps the first resignation demanded should be hers. She doesn’t necessarily have to resign from the Court, but should step down from her position as Chief Justice.
Given the way the left has jumped all over this, wouldn’t it be delicious irony if Bradley and Abrahamson had to resign and Scott Walker was given the ability to replace two of the three liberal Justices on the Court? The sight of that many heads in Madison exploding all at once would be awesome to see!
I don’t know whether it’s the beer, cheese, or the close proximity of the UW campus and the 40-year bong residue from both the campus and the East Side of Madison bracketing the Capitol.
The bad news is that the position of Chief Justice is assigned by seniority, and the next two most-seniur Justices are Bradley and Patrick Crooks, the other two liberals on the Court.