Crooks announced last week that he wouldn’t run for a third 10-year term on the high court and instead planned to retire when his current term ended in July.
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Walker has the power to appoint someone to fill Crooks’ seat ahead of the election, according to state elections officials. Crooks was named Trial Judge of the Year in 1994 by the Wisconsin chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
The term might suit Justice Crooks if one understands the phrase to mean simply that he spreads his votes somewhat more broadly and frequently along the ideological spectrum than does Justice Prosser. “We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family, and pray for peace and comfort”.
On the notoriously divisive Wisconsin Supreme Court, Crooks was in the conservative majority, UW-Madison law professor Howard Schweber noted, according to Channel 3000. From 1964 to 1966, he served as a U.S. Army officer at the Pentagon, in the Office of the Judge Advocate General.
“Anyone who argued cases before Justice Crooks knew he was an important decision-maker, and stood for balance on the bench”.
After law school, Crooks practiced law briefly in Green Bay, but quickly entered active duty for the U.S. Army.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he hoped Walker would move quickly to name a replacement for Crooks, saying: “I don’t think it’s wise for us not to have a full court”.
Only nine of the court’s scheduled cases had been heard before Crooks’ death.
Crooks served as both a lawyer and a judge in Wisconsin for 40 years, 19 of them on the bench of the state’s high court.
Crooks was appointed as a Brown County judge in 1977 by then-acting Gov. Martin Schreiber. “He tried to build consensus on the court, and always delivered well-reasoned opinions”. Walker’s spokeswoman said Monday the governor would decide what to do at a more appropriate time.
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Crooks and his wife, Kris, have four daughters and two sons.
