Michael Gableman: Difference between revisions

Michael J. Gableman (born September 18, 1966) is an American lawyer and former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.^[1] He is currently employed by the Wisconsin State Assembly to conduct an investigation into the 2020 United States presidential election in Wisconsin.^[2] A Republican, Gableman has been described as a "hard-line conservative."^[3]

Michael J. Gableman was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, in 1966 and raised in Waukesha County. He is a graduate of New Berlin West High School (1984) and Ripon College (1988), where he earned a bachelor's degree in education and history.^[4][5] He holds a teaching certificate for 7-12 grade history.^{[citation needed]} After college, Gableman taught American history at George Washington High School in the Milwaukee Public School system (1988–1989) before pursuing a legal career. He graduated from Hamline University School of Law in 1993.

While in law school, he worked as a part time law clerk in the United States Attorney's office in Minneapolis. After graduating, he served as a law clerk at the state district court level in Douglas County, Minnesota, and the state circuit court level in Brown County, Wisconsin. He became a half-time assistant district attorney in Langlade County, Wisconsin, in 1996, and worked the other half time at a private law office while also serving as deputy corporation counsel for Forest County. Gableman then worked as an assistant district attorney in Marathon County.^[5]

In May 1999, governor Tommy Thompson appointed Gableman to the vacant post of district attorney of Ashland County.^[6] Gableman was elected to a full term in this office in 2002,^[5] but resigned shortly after his election to accept an appointment as an administrative law judge in the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.^[7]

Later that year, Gableman was appointed Wisconsin circuit court judge for Burnett County, by governor Scott McCallum.^[5] He was elected to a full term in the April 2003 general election, receiving 78% of the vote over Burnett County district attorney Kenneth L. Kutz.^[8]

In Burnett County, Gableman established an inmate community service program, a juvenile community service program, a drug and alcohol court, and a restorative justice program for which he served as chairman of the board for six years.^{[citation needed]} He also was an adjunct professor of law at Hamline University School of Law, teaching criminal procedure and professional responsibility.^[4]

In October 2007, Gableman announced he would run for Wisconsin Supreme Court, challenging incumbent justice Louis B. Butler.^[9] Gableman described himself as a judicial conservative.^[10] In the April 1, 2008, general election, Gableman narrowly defeated Butler and became the first challenger to defeat an incumbent Wisconsin supreme court justice since 1967.^[11]

Gableman's election in 2008 was seen as part of a trend of outside big-money interests becoming a major factor in state judiciary elections.^[12] The race featured a number of false negative advertisements, using racial undertones against Butler—who was the first African American justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.^[13]

The controversy over the false advertisements eventually resulted in the Wisconsin Judicial Commission bringing an ethics charge against Gableman.^[14] The charge alleged that a campaign advertisement in which he accused Butler of working "to put criminals on the street" and accusing Butler of finding a "loophole" that resulted in the release of a child molester, was false and misleading.^[15]

Gableman claimed in his defense that his free speech rights were violated by the judicial conduct rule he was accused of breaking.^[16][17] A three-judge panel was charged with the preliminary investigation into whether the campaign ad violated the Wisconsin Code of Judicial Conduct.^[18] In November 2009, the panel unanimously recommended that the complaint against Gableman be dismissed.^[19] Procedure required that the Wisconsin Supreme Court make the final determination as to whether there was an ethics violation.^[18] When the court deadlocked 3-3, the commission stopped pursuing the case.^[20]

In January 2011, the group 9to5 Milwaukee filed an ethics complaint with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board against Gableman for failing to recuse himself from a case in which he had allegedly had a financial interest.^[21][22] The justice received legal counsel from July 2008 to July 2010 from the Wisconsin law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich on a contingency fee basis. Gableman received the services from the law firm as it defended him against a separate ethics charge. Gableman never declared the receipt of the services in official disclosure statements. Critics characterized the legal contingency-fee arrangement as "free" legal services, a characterization the law firm rejected.^[20]

In 2017, Gableman said he would not run for re-election in 2018.^[23]

Following Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States presidential election, the defeated incumbent, Donald Trump, refused to concede and launched a campaign to challenge the results in a number of states, including Wisconsin. During a November 7, 2020, speech at a Trump rally in Milwaukee four days after the election, Gableman said, "I don't think anyone here can think of anything more systematically unjust than a stolen election."

On June 26, 2021, State Assembly speaker Robin Vos announced at the Republican State Convention that he had appointed Gableman to conduct a review of the 2020 United States presidential election in Wisconsin. Gableman's appointment came 15 hours after Donald Trump issued a statement claiming Vos and other Wisconsin Republicans had engaged in a "cover up" regarding the election results.^[2] Following his appointment, Gableman claimed the election review was "not a partisan effort."^[2] Gableman issued subpoenas to a number of local officials in Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee, and subsequently made the embarrassing admission that he didn't actually understand how elections were supposed to be run.^[24]

• Profile at Vote Smart
• Michael Gableman at Ballotpedia
• Justice Michael J. Gableman at Wisconsin Court System