SHARE Gov. Scott Walker Friday named Waukesha attorney Daniel Kelly to the state Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice David Prosser.

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Madison — Gov. Scott Walker on Friday named a little-known Waukesha lawyer with no judicial experience to the state Supreme Court, putting Daniel Kelly on the bench and keeping in place the high court's 5-2 conservative majority.

Kelly — who in his application called affirmative action and slavery the same morally — will replace retiring Justice David Prosser on Aug. 1, the start of the court's new term.

Kelly, 52, initially applied for the appointment in secret, but his name became public in June, when Walker's team narrowed the field of candidates from 11 to five.

Kelly took just one question from reporters after Walker announced the appointment in the state Capitol, but he declined to discuss his writings opposing affirmative action and gay marriage.

"The primary and only job of a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is to apply the law as it is written and the oath that I will take will guarantee to you that my personal political beliefs and political philosophy will have no impact on that whatsoever," Kelly said. "Those things simply have no place inside the courtroom."

In his application, Kelly included a 2014 book chapter in which he wrote same-sex marriage would rob marriage of any meaning and likened affirmative action to slavery.

"Affirmative action and slavery differ, obviously, in significant ways," Kelly wrote. "But it's more a question of degree than principle, for they both spring from the same taproot. Neither can exist without the foundational principle that it is acceptable to force someone into an unwanted economic relationship. Morally, and as a matter of law, they are the same."

Asked to discuss what he meant, Kelly remained in the background and Walker answered on his behalf, saying Kelly would not inject his personal beliefs into his work for the court. Walker declined to yield the podium to Kelly when reporters asked him to specifically answer their questions.

Kelly also did not say whether he would run for a full 10-year term in 2020, but Walker said he expected that he would. Walker said he had not asked him that question when he interviewed him for the job.

In his prepared remarks, Kelly said he's had a lifelong love of the law and was humbled by the appointment.

"To this day, I cannot walk into a courtroom without my heart skipping a beat," he said. "I trust that will never change. I trust that I will always stand humbly before the law."

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack appeared with Walker and Kelly and said she had known Kelly for a long time and was impressed with his scholarship.

"I am very, very pleased with the governor's appointment," she said.

Kelly was with the large Milwaukee law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren for 15 years, but left it in 2013. He spent a year as the vice president and general counsel for the Kern Family Foundation, which was established by the founders of Generac Power Systems. In 2014, Kelly formed a small law firm in Waukesha with attorney Rod Rogahn.

Kelly has been closely involved with conservative legal groups. The president of the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, he also sits on an advisory panel to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

Throughout his application, he praised two of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices — Antonin Scalia, who died in February, and Clarence Thomas.

Kelly was an adviser to state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's campaign this year and served as an attorney on Prosser's campaign during a recount after he narrowly won re-election in 2011.

He also was on the legal team that defended legislative and congressional maps that Republican lawmakers redrew in 2011.

In that litigation, a panel of federal judges made changes to the districts for two Assembly districts on Milwaukee's south side after it found those maps violated the voting rights of Latinos. The other maps — which greatly favor Republicans — were left in place. (A separate challenge to the maps is pending in federal court in Madison; Kelly is not involved in that litigation.)

The appointment to the Supreme Court is the second one Walker has made since he was first elected in 2011. Last year, the GOP governor put Bradley on the bench, six months before she was elected to a full 10-year term.

Walker has the sole say on the appointment. Kelly does not need the confirmation of the state Senate or any other body.

The governor acknowledged Kelly did not have judicial experience, but noted two other members of the high court — Prosser and Justice Shirley Abrahamson — had not served as a judge before they became justices.

To get on the Supreme Court, Kelly beat out 10 others.

He was the only applicant who kept his name secret in the early going, but his name was released once he made the first cut.

The field was later cut from five to three and Kelly beat out the other two finalists, Appeals Court Judges Mark Gundrum and Thomas Hruz.

Gundrum, who served alongside Walker in the Assembly, was the early favorite among observers.

Walker appointed Gundrum to the District 2 Court of Appeals in Waukesha in 2011 — passing over Kelly for that spot.

Under state law, appointees to the state Supreme Court stand for election at the first year in which a Supreme Court election isn't already scheduled, and in this case contests are already planned for 2017, '18 and '19. That means that — should he choose to run — Kelly would be on the ballot in 2020.