A three judge panel is considering the content of an ad run by Justice Michael J. Gableman during his 2008 bid for a seat on the state Supreme Court.
The ad in question ran a month prior to Gableman’s victory over incumbent Justice Louis B. Butler last year. It referenced a case Butler took as a public defender involving child sex offender Rueben Lee Mitchell.
The ad states that “Butler found a loophole” and Mitchell went on to molest another child.
What the ad didn’t mention is that the state Supreme Court overturned Butler’s win on appeal and Mitchell did not commit the subsequent crime until he was on parole.
The judicial code of conduct forbids candidates from providing false information about an opponent.
On September 16, appellate court judges Ralph Adam Fine, Harry G. Snyder and David G. Deininger questioned attorneys for Gableman and the Wisconsin Judicial Commission (WJC) over whether the ad is protected by the First Amendment, or whether it violates the judicial code of conduct.
Gableman’s attorney James Bopp Jr., argued that the complaint filed by the WJC should be dismissed because statements made in the ad are protected.
He said that the content of the ad was not false, as alleged by the WJC, and that candidates have a constitutional right to be “misleading” in campaign advertisements.
But WJC attorney James Alexander said the series of statements strung together in the ad suggest that Butler’s actions directly led to Mitchell committing another crime.
Alexander said the ad left no room for the public to understand what actually happened in the case and therefore was a “lie.”
Gableman did not attend the hearing. The panel will decide whether to recommend dismissal of the complaint to the state Supreme Court and if not, what form of discipline should be imposed.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Mr. Gableman defrauded the public with his ad. He has no “right” to mislead. What does it say about a judicial candidate who asserts a right to mislead the public? I’d say any such candidate is unfit for office and should be disbarred.
Who is sponsoring Atty. Bopp? Bopp is not licensed to practice law in Wisconsin. Any attorney who believes judicial candidates and lawyers are free to mislead the public without penalty is the kind of lawyer who is unfit to practice in this state.