MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – Shirley Abrahamson, the oldest Wisconsin Supreme Court justice in state history and the first woman to serve in the high court, has died. He was 87 years old.
Abrahamson, who also served as chief judge for 19 years, died Saturday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her son Dan Abrahamson told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement that Abrahamson had a “greater impact than life” on the state’s legal profession and that his legacy is defined “not just by being the first , but of the work of her life to ensure that it would not be the end, opening and illuminating the way for many women and others who would come after her ”.
Recognized for a long time as a national legal scholar and leader among state judges, Abrahamson wrote more than 450 majority opinions and participated in more than 3,500 written decisions during her more than four decades in Wisconsin’s highest court. He retired in 2019 and moved to California to be closer to his family.
In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton considered placing it on the U.S. Supreme Court, and later outlined it in the book “Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia.”
He told the Wisconsin State Journal in 2006 that he liked being in court.
“It has a mix of sitting, reading and writing and thinking, which I like to do. And it’s quiet. On the other hand, all the problems I work on are real problems of real people, and it matters to them, and it also matters to the state of Wisconsin. Therefore, this gives him an advantage and a tension “, he said.
The New York native, with the emphasis on proving it, first graduated from her class at Indiana University Law School in 1956, three years after her marriage to Seymour Abrahamson. The couple moved to Madison and her husband, a world-renowned geneticist, joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty in 1961. She died in 2016.
She graduated in law from UW-Madison in 1962, then worked as a professor and joined a Madison law firm, hired by the father of future Gov. Jim Doyle.
Appointed to the state high court by the then governor. Patrick Lucey in 1976, Abrahamson won re-election four times to ten years in office, starting in 1979. He broke the record for the duration of justice in 2013, his 36th year in court.
Abrahamson was in the majority when the court in 2005 allowed a boy to sue for lead paint injuries, although he could not prove which company manufactured the product that made him ill, breaking decades of precedent and opening paint companies to claims for damages.
But Abrahamson found himself a minority in several high-profile cases later in his career, including in 2011, when the court upheld the law defended by the then Republican governor. Scott Walker ended the rights of public employees ’unions and again in 2015, when the court ended an investigation with political charges over Walker and conservative groups.
Abrahamhamson’s health began to fail in 2018 and court hearings were often missed. That May, he announced that he would not run again in 2019, and in August, he revealed he had cancer.
Doyle, a former Wisconsin attorney general and two-term governor, said Abrahamson was a pioneer and said he asked for advice when he presented himself to the Dane County District Attorney in the 1970s. Doyle’s father, who was a federal judge, gave Abrahamson his first job outside of law school, Doyle said Sunday.
“He was the warmest, funniest, and dearest friend anyone could have,” Doyle said.
Doyle has credited Abrahamson for working to demystify the court by holding statewide hearings and meeting with school and other groups to discuss his work.
In addition to breaking down barriers for women, Doyle has said Abrahamson was an advocate for civil rights and civil liberties, a protector of basic constitutional rights, and a strong advocate of open government and public records.
Dan Abrahamson, who practices law in California, said his mother kept her work and personal life separate.
“He was always there to eat,” he said. “He was always there with me to do homework. … As a mother, all the energy and attention she had to deal with and all the care she brought to her professional life she also brought to her family ”.
Abrahamson was not exempt from his enemies, both in court and among Republican lawmakers who pushed for a constitutional amendment in 2015 that led to his removal as chief judge. The amendment passed by voters allowed members of the tribunal to choose the first magistrate – who oversees the state’s judicial system – rather than requiring the title for the oldest justice.
Abrahamson, who became chief in 1996, was quickly voted by conservative judges who had a majority in court when the new law came into force in 2015. Since then, Judge Patience Roggensack has served as chief judge.
Although he often clashed with more conservative members of the court and gained the support of liberals and Democrats, Abrahamson firmly maintained that he was independent.
“When I went into court, they gave me a voice, a voice I didn’t hesitate to use,” Abrahamson said in May 2018. “The best expression of gratitude I can give to the people who have chosen me and re-elected repeatedly is: keep talking with the clarity, frankness and compassion that comes from a life that I have tried to dedicate to service and justice for all ”.