Judicial Council hopeful about reviving relationship with Supreme Court

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Wisconsin Judicial Council members are hopeful about reviving the council’s relationship with the Wisconsin Supreme Court after their latest meeting.

The judicial council has been on rocky ground with the high court since 2017. After the council’s executive committee voted to give its only employee a raise, the state Supreme Court announced it would no longer fund the council once former Gov. Scott Walker had signed the 2017-19 budget.

Since then, the judicial council has been fighting for funding in subsequent state budgets and to prove its worth to the state Supreme Court and lawmakers.

During the council’s meeting on Friday, members discussed how to approach the new chief justice, Annette Ziegler, about those issues.

John Orton, vice chairman of the council, said the council needed the high court to clarify that the purpose of the court’s 2017 announcement was to ensure money for the council didn’t come out of the court’s budget, not to eliminate the council entirely.

“The letter written by Chief Justice Roggensack still hangs over us like a big, black cloud,” Orton said. “There is still a movement afoot today in the Legislature to have us terminated as a body, so we have to get over that.”

Justice Rebecca Dallet said she’d work on that issue. She agreed that the council needs money, but she didn’t think the state Supreme Court would add dollars for that purpose back into its own budget. She recommended that the members first ask Ziegler for a renewed relationship with the court.

“I think there’s people on our court who maybe don’t know how much the council can benefit and the research capabilities and diversity of membership on the council,” Dallet said.

Council members agreed. Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, has been talking to legislative leaders who are on the Joint Committee on Finance about the judicial council’s importance.

“I think a lot of people just don’t understand what the council has done in the past, and they don’t understand what’s going to happen if the council goes away,” Wanggaard said. “It’s going to be a really, really, really expensive lesson (if that happens).”

He said he’s discussing the idea of adding the council’s funding request to a 999 motion, which will come up as a separate request at the end of the budget process. He said that request won’t happen for several weeks.

“For $166,000, the return on that investment by the state of Wisconsin is amazing,” Orton said. “They’re spending that much on toilet paper at the Dane County courthouse.”

In other judicial council business, Orton and Bill Gleisner, chairman of the judicial council, were again nominated to remain in their roles as vice chairman and chairman. Racine County Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz, who is on the council’s nominating committee, said the endorsement rewards and thanks the two for guiding the council through the budget difficulties and the pandemic.

A vote on the nomination will be on the council’s June agenda.

The council is also embarking on an effort to restyle Wisconsin’s rules of evidence. Professor Daniel Blinka, who teaches courses on evidence at Marquette Law School, may be willing to serve as a reporter for the project, and council members are also planning to ask someone from UW Law to join him in reviewing the rules. Follow @WLJReporter