Chief Justice Patience Roggensack
The newly elected head of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court says she wants to “begin repairing damage that has been done to the reputation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
Chief Justice Patience Roggensack offered few details on how she plans to do that though. In a statement released late Thursday, Roggensack listed her other priority as finding ways to enable the Wisconsin Court System to better serve the public.
The release came a day after she and three other conservative justices voted to make her the court’s new leader, despite an ongoing federal lawsuit from Justice Shirley Abrahamson. She is challenging a state constitutional amendment that change the leadership selection process. Under the amendment adopted by voters on April 7, the chief justice is voted on by members of the court, instead of the position automatically going to the most senior member.
The chief justice also noted in her statement that she will be donating the extra $8,000 salary that comes with being chief justice to a fund that provides civil legal services to those who are unable to afford them.
Roggensack was first elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2003, and was re-elected in 2013. Before that, she was an appeals court justice for seven years and practiced law for 16 years. Roggensack graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1980.