Justice Michael Gableman has hired a First Amendment lawyer to defend him against the State Judicial Commission, which recently filed a complaint against Gableman for making misleading attacks against his opponent during last spring’s Supreme Court race against former Justice Louis Butler. [In his response,](http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/081119_Gableman_Answer.pdf) Gableman references the ad which alleged Butler, a former public defender, as seeking “loopholes” to set criminals free. Of course, as most of you who’ve read the constitution understand, the role of a defense attorney is to aggressively defend his client, using the law (including its loopholes) to defend him. The offending ad featured Gableman arguing that Butler used “loopholes” to free a child molester, Reuben Mitchell, who then committed another rape. Here’s what happened in the case: Butler challenged his client’s conviction and the Court of Appeals agreed that unfair evidence had been admitted in the case against his client. The Wisconsin Supreme Court also agreed, however, ruled that the “loophole” was not great enough to overturn a conviction. Several years later, Mitchell was paroled. Later on, he committed another sexual assault. Gableman’s lawyer responds that although Butler’s appeal to the Supreme Court did not directly result in the molester being set free “Gableman lacks knowledge or information sufficient enough to form a belief as to the truthfulness of the allegation that no other action or conduct by Louis Butler resulted in the release from prison of Reuben Mitchell.” That pathetic plea of ignorance is so pathetically beside the point — every first year law student should be nauseous with this ploy to subvert justice.