Chief Justice Opposes Walker Plan To Move Judicial Watchdog

The chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court urged lawmakers to reject Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to put an independent judicial watchdog under the court’s control.

Wisconsin’s Judicial Commission investigates ethics complaints against judges. In recent years, those investigations have occasionally involved supreme court justices.

During a briefing before the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack urged lawmakers to reject Walker’s proposal to move the Judicial Commission into the court’s budget.

“Transferring the Judicial Commission into the Supreme Court as a Supreme Court department has the potential to create conflicts of interest for the Supreme Court, and it saves no money,” Roggensack told lawmakers.

This is the second budget in a row Walker proposed putting the Judicial Commission under the court’s control.