Progressives to take over as chief justice role on Wisconsin Supreme Court for first time since rules were changes

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The next chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court will come from the progressive majority. The court announced Thursday that the conservative who currently holds the mostly honorary position will be replaced.

The change in leadership comes two days after voters elected Susan Crawford to the court for a 10-year term that begins in August. Her victory over an opponent endorsed by President Donald Trump and funded by billionaire Elon Musk keeps the current 4-3 progressive majority.

The seven justices vote on a chief justice every two years. The current chief justice, conservative Annette Ziegler, was elected to the post in 2021 and reelected in 2023 just before the court flipped to progressive control that August. Her current term as chief justice runs through the end of April.

For 126 years, chief justices of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court were picked based on seniority. That changed in 2015, when Republicans wrote a constitutional amendment to be put on the ballot, which voters then approved. That made it possible for the court’s conservative majority to replace the state’s longest serving chief justice, Shirley Abrahamson, who was seen as part of the court’s liberal minority.

Ziegler will be replaced first by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley for two months and then Justice Jill Karofsky for the remainder of the two-year term.

“I wish my colleagues all the best,” Ziegler said in a brief statement. “It has been my honor to serve as chief justice for the last four years.”

She will be replaced on May 1 by Bradley, who is retiring after 30 years on the bench. Her retirement created the open seat that Crawford won.

Bradley called it a “tremendous honor” to be able to serve as chief justice before retiring.

Bradley’s retirement was recognized by Ziegler in open court Thursday before oral arguments.

Karofsky, who was elected in 2020, promised to “work respectfully” with all members of the court. Justices have gotten into private arguments and vented at one another in sometimes heated written rulings.

“The people of Wisconsin have great faith in this Court, and I intend to be a Chief that increases the people’s confidence even further,” Karofsky said in a statement.

The chief justice has no additional voting power on the Supreme Court. However, the person who holds the title is the administrative head of the state’s judicial system and has administrative authority over to procedures adopted by the Supreme Court.

Bradley is currently the longest-serving justice on the court and Ziegler, elected in 2007, is the second most senior.