State’s high court won’t rehear dairy case despite Justice Gableman, law firm ties

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Justice Michael Gableman won’t have to recuse himself from a case involving attorneys from Michael Best & Friedrich, a law firm that gave him thousands of dollars of legal counsel in a campaign ethics case.

The court split 3-3 on whether to rehear, without Gableman, an appeal by a group of citizens and the Rock County township of Magnolia of a case against the state’s Livestock Facility Siting Review Board. The tie means the case won’t be reheard.

Gableman did not participate in the decision.

The apellants had filed a motion for Gableman’s recusal and the rehearing after learning attorneys from Michael Best & Friedrich had represented Larson Acres, the dairy farm whose planned heifer facility they opposed. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last December that the law firm provided Gableman with two years and thousands of dollars worth of legal services during his campaign ethics case, and did not bill him as part of a contingency contract.

In a written order in January, Gableman contended he could act impartially in the case. Justices David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler concurred Thursday, ruling that Gableman had properly made the required subjective determination on his ability to remain unbiased. But Justices Ann Bradley and Patrick Crooks joined Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s far longer written opinion that Gableman’s order did not meet those requirements.

“The separate writing of my three colleagues is devoid of the typical analyses found in the court’s recusal opinions,” Abrahamson also wrote, contending that Prosser, Roggensack and Ziegler did not describe why Gableman had been asked to recuse himself, his reasons for refusing the request, or their reasons for deciding Gableman’s order met the required subjective determination.