Shirley Abrahamson, longest-serving member of Wisconsin Supreme Court, dies at 87

[milestogo]

MADISON — Shirley Abrahamson, the first woman to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and its long-time chief justice, died Saturday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her son said Sunday. She was 87.

During her four decades on the court, Abrahamson developed a national reputation as a leader in liberal judicial thought.

"Among jurists I have encountered in the United States and abroad, Shirley Abrahamson is the very best," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in a 2019 video message played at a ceremony for Abrahamson.

"As lawyer, law teacher and judge, she has inspired legions to follow in her way, to strive constantly to make the legal system genuinely equal and accessible to all who dwell in our fair land," said Ginsburg, who died this September, just three months before Abrahamson.

Democratic Gov. Patrick Lucey appointed Abrahamson to the state Supreme Court in 1976 after Chief Justice Horace Wilkie died. Abrahamson stayed on the court for 43 years, longer than anyone else in state history.

"When I joined the court, I was given a voice — a voice that I have not hesitated to use,” Abrahamson said in a 2018 statement announcing she would not seek another term the following year. “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."

read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/20/shirley-abrahamson-longest-serving-member-wisconsin-supreme-court-dies-87/3983456001/

[Chicago1980]

1. Same as RGB.

Age and cause of death.

[luv2fly]

2. I had not heard she passed

What a maverick...RIP Shirley.

[ewagner]

3. RIP Madam Chief Justice

She was a visionary and brilliant jurist.

[SmartVoter22]

4. Met Abrahamson several times

and each was enlightening.
We talked about voter laws, registrations, mail in voting and other election topics, years ago, that are relevant today.
She supported the easiest access to voting and the broadest ability to cast a ballot for all Wisconsinites.

Wisconsin lost an intelligent and articulate interpreter of all laws.

The right-wing coup by the NeoCon Justices to unseat Abrahamson, and the century old tradition that the Chief was the most senior justice, was despicable and should show all WIsconsinites, that they need to vote out every Republican judge.

Now we have a state court that is more than happy to allow frivolous lawsuits, like Trump's voter fraud case(s), to be heard. This current court is stacked with conspiracy nuts and jurists who do not research the cases they are hearing. Example: Chief Roggensack's concern about ballots being given in events at parks, when news had already shown not one unmarked ballot was given out during those events. Only completed ballots would be accepted, by authorized agents of the city clerks. She could watch the news and avoided showing how little she knew about the case before hearing arguments. Where are the staffers who should have provided these facts to the Justices?

This is not how any court should operate. Wisconsin's Supreme Court motto,
" Our mind is made up. Don't confuse us with the facts."

[VA_Jill]

5. This will be

kind of a long story. I met Shirley Abrahamson when she was just starting out. She was doing her dissertation, which was a compilation of state constitutions (ambitious much?) and was looking for someone to edit and proofread it. Somehow or another, this wound up in my mother's lap. It proved to be a little more than a one-person job, so my mom enlisted a couple of her friends to help. They would meet in our living room with coffee and pencils and before the day was over there would be papers all over the room. She did pay them, however! Once the dissertation was done, Mom continued to edit other papers and legal briefs for her, but the team was disbanded. The other thing I remember is that the Abrahamsons had, at the time, two Irish setters named Betsy B. and Briscoe. Briscoe was named after Robert Briscoe, the Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin.

May her memory be a blessing.