Shirley Schlanger Abrahamson is a former associate justice and former chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She was appointed to the court in 1976 by GovernorPatrick Lucey, becoming the first female justice to serve on Wisconsin's highest court. Abrahamson was re-elected to the Supreme Court in 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009. She became the court’s first female Chief Justice on August 1, 1996 and served in that capacity until April 29, 2015. Abrahamson initiated a federal legal challenge seeking reinstatement as Chief Justice. On May 15, 2015 U.S. District Judge James Peterson denied her request to be reinstated as chief justice. Her appeal of this decision was dismissed on July 31, 2015 and she withdrew her lawsuit on November 10, 2015. She served as a Justice for 43 years, the longest term in the Court’s history.
Abrahamson practiced law in Madison, Wisconsin for 14 years and was a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1976 by Governor Patrick Lucey, becoming the first woman to serve on Wisconsin's high court. She became the court’s first female Chief Justice on August 1, 1996 and served in that capacity until April 29, 2015. She served as a Justice for 43 years, the longest term in the Court’s history. Abrahamson has authored more than 450 majority opinions and participated in more than 3,500 written decisions of the court. She has been involved in deciding more than 10,000 petitions for review, bypasses, certifications and lawyer and judicial disciplinecases. She is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and serves on the board of directors of the Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration at New York University School of Law. She has been president of the Conference of Chief Justices and chair of the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts and has served on the Board of Visitors of several law schools. She served as a member of the United States National Academies Committee on Science, Technology and Law, and was chair of the . In 1997 she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1998 she was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, two scholarly societies in the United States. She is a member of the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 she was awarded the first annual Dwight Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence by the American Judicature Society. She has received the Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association. She has received numerous other awards and fifteen honorary degrees from universities and colleges across the U.S. She is featured in Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia, The Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America, and The Lawdragon 500 Leading Judges in America. She won re-election on April 7, 2009, defeating Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Koschnick. In April, 2015 voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that changed the way that the chief justice of the Supreme Court was selected. Previously the justice with the most seniority held the position, but the amendment allowed court members to choose the chief justice. On April 29, 2015, the day the vote canvass was certified by the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the justices elected Justice Patience D. Roggensack as the new chief justice. According to Abrahamson's own opinion in the 2002 case, State v. Gonzalez, ""nless a constitutional amendment provides otherwise, it takes effect upon the certification of a statewide canvass of the votes," Since that date, as there is no wording in the amendment saying it should not take effect after the canvass, and no stay or temporary restraining order on the amendment, Justice Roggensack became the Chief Justice, and she has acted in that position in court business since then. Abrahamson filed a federal lawsuit challenging the immediate implementation of the constitutional amendment, contending that she should remain chief justice until the expiration of her current term in 2019. Her lawsuit was heard on May 15, 2015. Five of the seven justices asked the federal judge to dismiss Abrahamson's lawsuit. That day, the federal court denied Abrahamson's request for immediate reinstatement as Chief Justice. U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson determined there was no harm in Roggensack serving as chief justice while Abrahamson's lawsuit continued. On May 27 she appealed that decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. However, she dropped the lawsuit on November 10, after deciding that, no matter what happened in her lawsuit, her term would be close to ending by the time the litigation finally ended. On May 30, 2018, Abrahamson announced she would not seek re-election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2019. She served for 43 years, the longest term in the Court’s history.
Personal life
Abrahamson and her husband, Seymour, were married for 54 years; they had one son. in August 2018, Abrahamson announced she was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer and would finish the remainder of her term which ended in 2019.
