“We need judges who will make democracy work by not thwarting laws put in place to level the playing field for small farms, small- and medium-sized businesses, free markets, labor and consumers. Neil Gorsuch is not that judge,” Burns wrote in the opinion column.

Gableman’s 2008 election created the Supreme Court’s current conservative majority, which has since grown to comprise five of the seven seats. He is up for re-election after a 10-year term during which the court has become increasingly fractious and backed by outside interest groups defined by political ideologies.

Gableman also has been criticized for not recusing himself from a case that resulted in a decision to halt a secret criminal probe into whether Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign illegally coordinated its actions with conservative outside groups. During Gableman’s 2008 election campaign, the same groups that were subjects of the probe spent millions to help elect him.

And in 2010, the court deadlocked 3-3 on whether Gableman violated the judicial code of conduct by running a potentially misleading and race-baiting campaign ad on his way to being elected in 2008, defeating Justice Louis Butler, who is black. Gableman recused himself. The other three conservative justices said the ad was distasteful but “objectively true” and protected by the First Amendment.