Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/tag/judicial-misconduct/)
The backdrop for many of Wisconsin’s current ethical controversies is an unprecedented flow of money into the state’s political machinery. With last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, some loopholes in the state’s campaign finance laws have grown even wider.
An opinion poll conducted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan group Justice at Stake found that Wisconsinites’ confidence in their Supreme Court has nose-dived to 33 percent, down from 52 percent just three years ago.
The Wisconsin Judicial Commission and the Dane County’s Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that they are conducting separate ethical and criminal investigations into an alleged physical altercation between two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices.
Several sources told Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that an argument before the court’s release of a decision upholding a bill to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employees culminated in a physical altercation in the presence of other justices.