Shirley Abrahamson won't seek another term, setting up race for Wisconsin high court seat

Patrick Marley , Bill Glauber | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Shirley Abrahamson — the first woman on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and a fixture of it for more than 40 years — won’t seek another term next year.

Abrahamson, 84, has participated in cases by phone in recent weeks for undisclosed medical reasons. She said in a statement Wednesday that she would not leave the court before her term ends next summer.

"When I joined the court, I was given a voice — a voice that I have not hesitated to use," she said in her statement. "The best expression of appreciation I can give the people who have elected and repeatedly re-elected me is to continue to speak with the clarity, forthrightness and compassion that come from a life I have tried to devote to service and to justice for all."

A New Yorker who has never lost her accent, Abrahamson developed a national reputation as a leader in liberal legal thought. She has served longer on the high court than anyone in the state's history.

"Shirley Abrahamson's place in history was secured from the day she took the oath of office and began to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court as the first woman ever to be a justice," said Joseph Kearney, dean of Marquette University Law School.

"To say that, though, is really just to scratch the surface of her influence on the court and the law of Wisconsin over the past going on 42 years. She brings to the court the dispassion of an academic, the extraordinary skills of a most able lawyer and a real ability to connect with the people of Wisconsin as proved over and over again in her first election and subsequent re-election campaigns."

Democratic Gov. Patrick Lucey named Abrahamson to the court in 1976 after Chief Justice Horace Wilkie died.

"This appointment affords an opportunity for one woman to help right the wrongs that have faced all women over the years," Lucey said when he appointed her.

In 1996, she became chief justice because she was the most senior member of the court.

She held the position until 2015, when voters adopted an amendment to the state constitution to allow the members of the court to pick the chief justice. Conservatives on the court quickly voted to move Abrahamson out of the job and replace her with Justice Patience Roggensack.

Abrahamson sued over her ouster in federal court but lost the case.

Abrahamson’s departure from the court will launch a scramble to replace her.

Justice Shirley Abrahamson talks about the judicial role in government Justice Shirley Abrahamson talks about the judicial role in government. Originally aired in 2012

Brian Hagedorn, an appeals court judge and former chief legal counsel to GOP Gov. Scott Walker, said Wednesday he was having "many encouraging conversations" about a possible run. On the left, Appeals Judge Lisa Neubauer is considering a run and said in a statement she planned to decide quickly.

When the fall term starts, conservatives will have a 4-3 majority on the court. The election to replace Abrahamson in April 2019 will determine whether conservatives hold that margin or widen it to 5-2.

"I will encourage qualified candidates to seek election and to do so in a way that honors the independent and nonpartisan tradition of the judicial branch in Wisconsin — though that tradition has been tested too often," Abrahamson said.

Abrahamson missed court arguments in three cases in October — a rarity for a justice who is known to work at the Capitol deep into the night. She said at the time she wasn't feeling well but was better a few days later.

Starting in April, she began participating in cases by phone. At the time, her office released a statement saying she was undergoing medical testing but did not provide any other details.

Janine Geske, a Marquette law professor and former justice, said she admired Abrahamson as a leader and jurist even though she didn't always agree with her decisions.

“I don’t know anybody smarter or who works harder than she does," Geske said. “She clearly was of the quality that could have been on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Abrahamson is known for making her clerks work long hours, but Geske said Abrahamson never expected them to put in any more time than she did.

“I knew if I had to get a hold of her even late on a Saturday night, I would have to call her chambers," Geske said.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb called Abrahamson an exceptional member of the state's high court.

"People should know her for the immense amount of work and scholarship she contributed," Crabb said. "She was an extraordinary lawyer and she did almost everything. She did many, many opinions and she was active in a lot of legal activities. She delivered speeches. She'd talk wonderfully to people whether second-graders or legal giants in the field."

Abrahamson turned dissenting into an art and sometimes had her views ultimately validated.

"She'll write a dissent in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and it will go to the U.S. Supreme Court and be a majority opinion," said Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

That's what happened when the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the state's penalty enhancer for hate speech. When the U.S. Supreme Court took the case, it unanimously sided with Abrahamson's dissent.

Among the major decisions authored by Abrahamson was a 2005 opinion that struck down caps on the amount of non-economic damages — such as pain and suffering — that could be awarded to victims of medical malpractice. In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that those caps were arbitrary and violated the equal protection provision of the state constitution.

State lawmakers quickly replaced that cap, which is now being challenged before the state Supreme Court by a Milwaukee woman who lost all four limbs to medical malpractice.

Abrahamson had her detractors, both on the right and the left, who criticized her for her leadership style. Brandon Scholz, who has helped conservatives in court elections, noted Abrahamson led the court at a time when relations among the justices were often frayed.

"When you are the leader of an organization ... you are responsible for what happens with that body," he said. "You're responsible for the good things and the not-so-good things."

At the time Lucey appointed Abrahamson, she was lauded for her experience, but there were questions about her electability. She put those questions to rest, winning election four times.

Over the years, Abrahamson has proved politically durable, surviving attacks from both the right and left. In the late 1990s, liberal and conservative members on the bench supported her opponent, Sharren Rose. Abrahamson beat her by a nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

Abrahamson's parents were immigrants from Poland who owned a grocery store in Manhattan. At age 6, she decided she wanted to be a lawyer and became an eager student, earning honors in high school and college.

In 1953, she and her husband, Seymour Abrahamson, a zoology student, were newly married. They enrolled at Indiana University, where he pursued an advanced degree and she entered law school. For at least two semesters, she was the only woman studying law there. She ranked first in a class of 62 students when she earned her law degree.

The Abrahamsons then moved to Wisconsin, where he studied for his doctoral degree and she went for a doctorate at the law school.

Abrahamson became a professor at the law school and partner at a prominent Madison law firm where she worked for 14 years before being appointed to the high court.

Seymour Abrahamson, who died in 2016, was a renowned geneticist. Geske described the pair as a "superstar couple."

RELATED: Rebecca Dallet beats Michael Screnock in race for Wisconsin Supreme Court

RELATED: Wisconsin Supreme Court moves to raise pay rate for some lawyers representing poor defendants

In recent years, Abrahamson has been in the minority and has offered pointed dissents. With her statement Wednesday, she made clear she plans to continue doing that.

"I will continue to express my point of view," she said. "I will do so on the bench. And, if principles and values integral to the great state of Wisconsin and its courts continue to be challenged, I will also express my views off the bench, if necessary and as appropriate.”

Cary Spivak of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.