Wisconsin’s legislature is considering two bills that would end the practice of making the longest serving justice of the state’s Supreme Court the Chief Justice. Under AJR 49 and SJR 36, the determination would instead be made every time a justice is elected or re-elected to the court. This could make the effective term of a chief justice in the state a single year; the state’s constitution programs “Only one justice may be elected in any year” and there’s been 9 elections since 2000 (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, & 2011).

The Wisconsin Assembly’s Committee on Judiciary and Ethics is set to hold a public hearing on the proposal December 15.

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