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Wisconsin Supreme Court justices vote Ziegler to second term as chief justice

The Wisconsin Supreme Court announced March 16 that justices had voted in private to keep Chief Justice Annette Ziegler in the post she first assumed in 2021, but did not announce the vote breakdown.

Associated Press

March 16, 2023

Annette Ziegler sits in a high-backed leather chair at a judicial bench equipped with a microphone and a nameplate reading J. Ziegler, holding a sheaf of papers in her hands while listening to another person speaking, with high-backed carved wood-and-leather chairs in the background and in a room with marble pillars and masonry.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler participates in oral arguments on Sept. 5, 2018. She was elected as chief justice of the court in 2021 and subsequently reelected to a second two-year term, the court announced on March 16, 2023. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler has been reelected by her fellow justices to a second two-year term leading the state’s highest court.

The court announced March 16 that justices had voted in private to keep Ziegler in the post she first assumed in 2021. The court did not announce the vote breakdown.

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.

Ziegler has served on the court since 2007. She is part of the four-justice conservative majority.

The April 4 election to replace retiring Justice Patience Roggensack will determine whether conservatives maintain their 4-3 majority or liberals take over. Democratic-backed candidate Janet Protasiewicz is running against Republican-backed Dan Kelly.

Roggensack was the first chief justice elected by fellow justices in 2015. That happened after voters approved a constitutional amendment giving justices the power to pick their chief. Before the amendment the longest-serving justice was automatically the chief.