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Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, is calling for the state legislature to explore selecting justices instead of electing them in light of a recent Supreme Court deadlock over whether to sanction current Justice Michael Gableman for lying in his campaign:

And, still, the 3-3 deadlock on whether to sanction Justice Michael Gableman for a campaign lie does send a message: Supreme Court justices are mere politicians, allowed to lie without consequence to secure plum jobs. And this prompts the question: Why should voters believe that the mere act of donning black robes will suddenly transform any justice who lies to get elected into the picture of legal impartiality and propriety?

Gableman’s campaign accused his opponent, a public defender, of finding a “loophole” in a law that allowed a child rapist to be released and subsequently rape again. The problem, the Journal-Sentinel says, is that the public defender didn’t. “It’s a lie.”

The newspaper, which has pushed for judicial reform in other contexts in the past, (for an example, click here) continues:

Appointing Supreme Court justices rather than electing them can more effectively distance these candidates from the corrupting influences of politicking, raising money and appearing to all the world as just another layer of partisan politicians, except with black robes.

Read the full editorial here.

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