http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt_and_politics/article_a6ae0334-cfaf-11de-8d04-001cc4c03286.htmlA three-judge panel is recommending that the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismiss an ethics complaint against Justice Michael Gableman for a commercial Gableman’s campaign ran during his 2008 run for the high court.
In a 37-page recommendation issued Thursday, the three appeals court judges said the ad, which criticized incumbent Justice Louis Butler, did not violate the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct. The case now goes to Gableman’s six peers on the Supreme Court.
The Wisconsin Judicial Commission charged that Gableman violated a rule that bars judicial candidates from knowingly misrepresenting “the identity, qualifications, present position, or other fact concerning the candidate or an opponent.”
However, judges Harry Snyder, Ralph Adam Fine and David Deininger found that each of the statements in the commercial was true, even if the words, taken together, left a false or misleading impression. Snyder and Deininger found that discipline could only be imposed for “objectively false statements.”