David Prosser has a problem with civility
The Cap Times Saturday, October 1, 2011 5:15 am
Justice David Prosser admits to having verbally abused the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He acknowledges that, in one of his frequent fits of anger, he grabbed another justice around the neck.
Justice Prosser’s targets are women. And he makes no apologies.
Prosser’s fellow justices acknowledge that he would be well served by anger-management counseling and other interventions designed to help troubled individuals.
But Prosser refuses.
Indeed, he even objects to efforts to bring a measure of civility to the high court.
When justices announced this week that they were committed to working together collegially, Prosser complained about the initiative and backed it only grudgingly. When the vote on whether to issue the statement came, the other six justices — conservatives and liberals — raised their hands immediately.
Before finally going along with it, Prosser hesitated and complained that the statement was “nice sounding, but somewhat meaningless.”
In Prosser’s case, that may be true.
Thankfully, the rest of the court is trying to ease the tension and disarray that Prosser has fostered.
It may be true that the court will remain dysfunctional for so long as Prosser sits on it.
But the other justices are to be commended for at least making an effort to address the court’s “Prosser problem.”
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