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Nasty email surfaces on the eve of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

"In a fit of temper, you were screaming at the chief; calling her a 'bitch,' threatening her with '.?.?.?I will destroy you'; and describing the means of destruction as a war against her 'and it won't be a ground war,'" [Justice Ann Walsh]Bradley wrote in a Feb. 18, 2010, e-mail to [incumbent Justice David] Prosser and others....

Three days later, Justice Patience Roggensack wrote to Bradley, criticizing her for copying judicial assistants on her e-mail.

"You were trying to make David look bad in the eyes of others, as a person who uses language that we all find offensive - and I include David in that 'we,'?" Roggensack wrote. "Do you think that copying others on your e-mail increased the collegiality of the court or decreased it?

"You are a very active participant in the dysfunctional way we carry-on. (As am I.) You often goad other justices by pushing and pushing in conference in a way that is simply rude and completely nonproductive. ..."...

Said Prosser: "There is not the slightest doubt that Ann wrote that e-mail to hurt me in this campaign - and here it is surfacing three weeks before the campaign."...

Incredibly ugly.  It's hard to picture judges acting this way. I hope there's questioning about this in the debate between Prosser and his opponent JoAnne Kloppenburg, which takes place on March 28th.

Full post as published by Althouse on March 20, 2011 (boomark / email).