Friday, November 28, 2008

Gableman Not Rolling Over

GOP3's Daniel Suhr has an interesting post on the Gableman affair.

Justice Gableman did not hire Bopp because they are both pro-life. He hired Bopp because Bopp is perhaps the best single attorney in the country for litigating judicial free speech claims. Bopp was counsel to the Republican Party of Minnesota in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765 (2002), the leading US Supreme Court decision on judicial free speech. Since then, Bopp has argued a number of other judicial free speech cases...

(The first sentence is in response to the silly and un-informed editorial run by the CapSlimes.)

Here's the meat of the matter:

The story is that Gableman hired a free speech fighter, rather than a Wisconsin ethics conciliator. Gableman could have hired a Wisconsin attorney who was an expert in Wisconsin legal ethics and sought a settlement with the Judicial Commission. He could have figured out a way to plead something like nolo contendere, maybe pay a fine and accept a reprimand, etc. Instead, Gableman hired a First Amendment fighter who is experienced in taking cases to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Looks like the Ethics Board is in for a little testing. That's a good thing.

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