State Ex Rel. Sachtjen v. Festge

I support the exclusion of county judges from the restrictions of sec. 26, art. IV of the Wisconsin constitution, but in reaffirming State ex rel. Sullivan v. Boos (1964), 23 Wis. (2d) 98, 126 N. W. (2d) 579, the majority opinion perpetuates and, indeed, aggravates the serious error of that decision.

This court has the awesome responsibility of superintending Wisconsin’s judicial system. Yet it is difficult to conceive of a more self-defeating decision than that reached here by the majority. The problem of providing an evenhanded method of compensating judges must be viewed as part of the…