WI's Chief Justice Abrahamson gives State of the Judiciary Address.

• Date: 23 October 2002

Byline: David Ziemer

"Enduring Values in Changing Times" was the topic of Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson during her State of the Judiciary Address at the 38th Annual Wisconsin Judicial Conference last week at Monona Terrace in Madison, during which she spoke at length about the first members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the fight for judicial independence.

As Abrahamson noted, the year 2003 will be the sesquicentennial for the court, five years after the State itself celebrated that benchmark, because the original 1848 constitution did not provide for a separate Supreme Court. Instead, the five trial judges from around the state would review appeals from their own decisions collectively. A suggestion that the state return to that system drew wide support from the circuit court judges present.

The first three justices, elected in 1852, and sworn in in 1853, Abrahamson noted, were Abram Smith, Samuel Crawford, and Edward Whiton, very quickly found themselves dragged into the great social and political issue of the day - slavery.

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