Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice won't seek reelection

MADISON, Wis. (CN) — Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler announced on Monday she will not seek reelection after two terms, opening the field in 2027.

“It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve as judge and justice for the past 30 years,” Ziegler said in a statement. “I am incredibly proud that in all my elections I had support from a broad spectrum of legal, civic, law enforcement and political leaders — both Democrats and Republicans — who believed in my commitment to fairness, ethics and the rule of law.

Ziegler, 62, is the second conservative member of the court to decide against another term since the court’s ideological majority swung liberal by a 4-3 margin in 2023 with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.

Justice Susan Crawford’s record-breaking win in 2025 cemented the liberal majority for the first time in 15 years.

Just four months later, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley bowed out of the 2026 race with a highly political statement that sought to warn Wisconsin voters of liberal “judicial activists.”

Ziegler was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2007 with 59% of the vote. She was reelected in 2017 without opposition. In 2021, her fellow justices elected her to serve as chief justice for four years, a position in which she was generous and fair with speaking time for the justices and presenting lawyers.

According to the court, she is the 80th justice and the sixth woman to serve since Wisconsin became a state in 1848. Ziegler was also the first female jurist in Washington County, where she served on the circuit court for seven years before moving on to the Court of Appeals District II.

Ziegler said in her statement that, after three decades on the bench, it’s time to step away to spend more time with her husband, kids and grandkids.

“While I will not be a candidate next year, my appreciation for the people of Wisconsin and the judicial system I have been privileged to serve in remains as strong as ever,” Ziegler said. “I look forward to finishing out the rest of my term on the court and handing the baton to a new justice in 2027.”

Ziegler and Bradley have frequently joined each other’s dissenting opinions since the liberal majority took hold. Their writings often skew more politically charged than their liberal counterparts and have recently taken to warning of judicial activism.

Most recently, the pair objected strongly to the court’s decision to appoint judicial panels to review two challenges to Wisconsin’s congressional maps in November 2025.

In her nine-page dissent, Ziegler accused the majority of enacting a pattern of partisan judicial activism: “Today is not a good day for Wisconsin’s judicial system.”

The decision to appoint judicial panels does not go so far as to grant Supreme Court review of the challenges but rather gives the circuit court the authority to conduct fact-finding to determine whether the cases can legally be escalated to the highest bench.

Crawford, the court’s newest justice, told Courthouse News on the campaign trail that an activist judge is simply one whose decisions you disagree with — a scarlet letter that is weaponized to criticize decisions they are unhappy with.

Ziegler herself was publicly reprimanded for willfully violating the judicial code of conduct by presiding over 11 cases in which she had a conflict of interest — an unprecedented decision by her fellow justices just after winning her election to the Supreme Court in 2008.

The conflict of interest stemmed from cases involving a bank in which she had an interest but was found not to have gained financially from her decisions in favor of the bank, according to the 60-page opinion.

In a statement to the Wisconsin State Journal in 2008, Ziegler said she was happy the matter was concluded so she can focus on serving the people of Wisconsin.

Ziegler is originally from Michigan and moved to Wisconsin to attend Marquette University Law School. From there, she worked in private practice representing businesses and was an assistant United States attorney and special assistant district attorney before taking the bench.

She was first appointed by former Governor Tommy Thompson but was reelected for two more terms.

Since moving on to the state’s Supreme Court, she has continued serving Washington County through the Boys and Girls Club. The organization awarded her its National Silver Medallion award in 2023 and inducted her into its hall of fame in 2024.

The race for Bradley’s open seat is down to two appeals judges — conservative  Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Maria Lazar and liberal Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor. The lead-up to election day in April has not had nearly the political charge as seen in the last two elections, nor has it received the national spotlight in quite the same way.

The race will not alter the majority of the court, but a win for Taylor could solidify the liberal majority until 2030.

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