{{Short description|21st century American judge}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = The Honorable |name = Louis B. Butler Jr. |image = Louis B. Butler in 2009.png |image_size = |caption = Butler in 2009 |office = Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court |term_start = August 1, 2004 |term_end = July 31, 2008 |appointer = Jim Doyle |predecessor = Diane S. Sykes |successor = Michael Gableman |office1 = Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge <br />for the Milwaukee Circuit, Branch 9 |term_start1 = August 1, 2002 |term_end1 = August 2004 |predecessor1 = Robert W. Crawford |successor1 = Paul R. Van Grunsven |birth_name = Louis Bennett Butler Jr. |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|2|15}} |birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |death_date = |alma_mater = {{plainlist| *Lawrence University <small>(B.A.)</small> *University of Wisconsin Law School <small>(J.D.)</small>}} |spouse = Irene |children = 2 }}
'''Louis Bennett Butler Jr.''' (born February 15, 1952) is a former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Butler was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Jim Doyle in August 2004; his term expired on July 31, 2008. He is the first African American to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a United States district judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, but his nomination never received a vote in the Senate.
==Biography== Louis Butler was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He earned his bachelor's degree from Lawrence University in 1973 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1977.<ref name="wicourts">{{Cite web |title=Former Justices – Justice Louis B. Butler, Jr. |url=https://www.wicourts.gov/courts/supreme/justices/retired/butler.htm |access-date=March 4, 2023 |website=Wisconsin Court System}}</ref>
After serving as an assistant state public defender from 1979 to 1992, Louis Butler was appointed to the Municipal Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as a municipal judge until 2002, when he was elected a Wisconsin circuit court judge for Milwaukee County, defeating incumbent judge Robert Crawford. Butler also served as an adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School.<ref name="wicourts" />
Butler campaigned for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2000, but lost his election bid to incumbent Diane Sykes by a wide margin. After being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2004, he was defeated by the Judge Michael Gableman in the April 1, 2008 elections. Butler was the first sitting Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to be defeated in a reelection campaign since 1967. The ''Wall Street Journal'' argued this loss stemmed from opinions he wrote in medical malpractice, search and seizure, and product liability cases.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fund |first=John |date=April 5, 2008 |title=Wisconsin's Judicial Revolution |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120735975782591721?mod=djemEditorialPage |access-date=2008-05-27}}</ref> Business groups, including Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), paid for a large number{{Clarify|date=December 2012}} of issue ads in this campaign cycle, although the Butler campaign outspent Gableman's by several hundred thousand dollars.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Basting |first=Thomas J. |title= Gutter Politics and the Wisconsin Supreme Court |url=https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/WisconsinLawyer/Pages/Article.aspx?Volume=81&Issue=5&ArticleID=1582 |journal=Wisconsin Lawyer |publisher=State Bar of Wisconsin |volume=81 |issue=5 |date= May 2008 |access-date=May 16, 2024 }}</ref>
Since his defeat, Butler agreed to serve a two-year term as Justice-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he would teach several courses and clinics for the 2008–2010 academic years.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chaptman |first=Dennis |date=September 24, 2008 |title=Former state Supreme Court justice to teach at UW Law School |url=https://www.news.wisc.edu/15670 |access-date=2009-02-13 |publisher=University of Wisconsin}}</ref>
On September 30, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Butler to serve as United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 September 2009 |title=Presidential Nominations sent to the Senate, 9/30/09 |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Nominations-sent-to-the-Senate-9/30/09/ |access-date=2009-09-30 |website=whitehouse.gov |via=National Archives}}</ref> However, his nomination was returned to the President on December 24, 2009.<!-- This ref should be replaced with something more permanent. --><ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: Nominations Failed or Returned to the President |url=https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/one_item_and_teasers/nom_rtn.htm}}</ref> Obama renominated Butler on January 20, 2010, but the Senate returned the nomination to the President on August 5, 2010. Obama then renominated Butler on September 13, 2010. NPR commented on the Senate's reluctance to confirm Butler in an August 4, 2011 article: <blockquote>"Some of the longest waiting nominees, Louis Butler of Wisconsin, Charles Bernard Day of Maryland and Edward Dumont of Washington happen to be black or openly gay."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Carrie |date=August 4, 2011 |title=Obama Gets High Marks For Diversifying The Bench |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138903866/obama-gets-high-marks-for-diversifying-the-bench |publisher=NPR}}</ref></blockquote> His nomination was returned to the President on December 17, 2011, pursuant to the rules of the Senate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Senate Record for December 17, 2011 |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r112:@FIELD%28FLD003+s%29+@FIELD%28DDATE+20111217%29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704201612/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r112:@FIELD(FLD003+s)+@FIELD(DDATE+20111217) |archive-date=July 4, 2016 |access-date=December 18, 2011}}</ref>
== See also == * List of African-American jurists * Barack Obama judicial appointment controversies
== External links == * [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_29-02c868r2 ''Here and Now'' (PBS Wisconsin) interview with Incumbent Justice Louis Butler] before the We the People Candidate Debate on March 28, 2008 in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before = Robert W. Crawford }} {{s-ttl|title = {{nowrap|Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge}} {{nowrap|for the Milwaukee Circuit, Branch 9}} |years= August 1, 2002{{spaced ndash}}July 31, 2004 }} {{s-aft|after = Paul R. Van Grunsven }} {{s-bef|before = Diane S. Sykes }} {{s-ttl|title = Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court |years = August 1, 2004{{spaced ndash}}July 31, 2008 }} {{s-aft|after = Michael Gableman }} {{s-end}} {{Wisconsin Supreme Court justices navbox|state=collapsed}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Louis B.}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Lawyers from Chicago Category:Lawrence University alumni Category:University of Wisconsin Law School alumni Category:African-American judges Category:Wisconsin circuit court judges Category:Justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Category:Public defenders Category:University of Wisconsin Law School faculty Category:21st-century African-American lawyers Category:20th-century African-American lawyers