Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser currently faces ethics charges for allegedly grabbing fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley by the neck during an argument in Bradley’s chambers. In response to these allegations, Prosser tried to convince a majority of his colleagues to recuse themselves from his case — a move that would effectively kill the complaint against him because it would deprive the state supreme court of the quorum it needs to hold Prosser accountable if it determines that the allegations against him have merit.

All three of Prosser’s fellow conservatives have now signed onto this plan:

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman becomes the third member of the state’s high court to recuse himself from hearing the complaint against fellow Justice David Prosser.

Gableman made the expected announcement yesterday. Justices Annette Ziegler and Pat Roggensack had already said they wouldn’t take part in consideration of the complaint by the Wisconsin Judicial Commission.

Prosser argued that his fellow justices could not sit on his case because most of them witnessed the alleged choking incident. Yet, while it is usually true that a judge should not sit on a case where they are also a witness, that normal rule should not have applied here. Courts normally apply a “rule of necessity” to these sorts of cases which establishes that “a judge is not disqualified to [hear] a case because of a personal interest in the matter at issue if ‘the case cannot be heard otherwise.’”

Gableman, who provided the final vote immunizing Prosser, benefited in the past from a similar vote by his conservative colleagues. An ethics case against Gabelman for running a false ad against his predecessor was dropped his fellow conservatives voted to effectively kill it.

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY)

As that investigation proceeds, Grimm now faces new ethics allegations, this time over his repeated failure to disclose a privately funded trip to Cyprus. The New York Times reports that though Grimm did receive pre-approval for his trip from the House Ethics Committee, he neglected to file the required disclosures afterwards:

Mr. Grimm did not file required paperwork about the trip, which was paid for by a private organization, with the House clerk, according to Congressional records. Nor did he initially report the Cyprus trip on his Congressional financial disclosure filing in May, even though he did list [an] Israel trip, according to the records.

But in June, Mr. Grimm amended his financial disclosure filing to report the Cyprus trip, the records show. The amended filing came one day after his host on the trip, Peter Papanicolaou, the president of the Cyprus Federation of America, which paid for the $6,890 visit, was arrested in Brooklyn on federal corruption charges.

Despite House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) promised “zero-tolerance” policy on ethical scandals, House Republicans have taking no action against Grimm.

Suspended PA Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin (R)

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

[Former former Orie Melvin chief law clerk Lisa] Sasinoski referred back to an incident just before the 2003 general election when she claimed that Janine Orie, the judge’s sister and office manager, asked her to copy receipts and vouchers of her travels with the judge, to make it appear the judge’s other sister, Sen. Jane Orie, accompanied them in their campaign travels. In that way, they could get a check from the campaign treasury, write it out to Jane Orie for reimbursement, and she would then in turn provide the campaign cash to be used as street money. She explained that street money was used to encourage and help people get to the polls.

Now an employee of Justice Max Baer, Ms. Sasinoski testified that at the end of the 2003 election season, she told Ms. Orie Melvin that she could no longer participate in political activity. Two days later, she said Janine Orie demanded her court and building ID.

Another former clerk also testified that she experienced retaliation after she declined to work for Orie Melvin’s campaign on election day.

Special interests and the legislature’s GOP majority killed a constitutional amendment earlier this year that would have switched from elected appellate judges to a merit-based selection system.

The Scranton Times-Tribune, Philadelphia Daily News, and the Philadelphia Bar Association have called for Justice Orie Melvin to resign. While she has refused to do so, the Supreme Court has already split three-three on at least one case and may effectively mean major decisions will be made by lower court judges.

Congressional candidate Maggie Brooks (R)

Bruce Fennie, a Rochester-based federal lobbyist has raised at least $19,200 in “bundled” contributions for Brooks’ Congressional campaign and contributed the legal maximum of $2,500. Fennie is the only lobbyist bundler identified to date as having raised a significant amount for Brooks. And this support is nothing new — New York State campaign finance disclosure records show Fennie gave tens of thousands to her county races over the years.

Why is Fennie so enthusiastic about Brooks? One reason may be that, during her tenure as County Executive, almost all of his lobbying contracts over Brooks’ tenure have been with her county’s government. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported in 2010:

Fennie, a former executive in Rochester for the communications division of Florida-based Harris Corp., and his three employees earned $660,000 last year representing five public-sector clients in Monroe County.

They were paid $260,000 by the Monroe County Water Authority, $160,000 by Monroe Community College and $80,000 each by Monroe County, the Monroe County Airport Authority and the Monroe County Department of Transportation, according to public disclosure reports he filed with the House of Representatives.

The Monroe Community College was the only such institution in the state of New York to be paying a federal lobbyist. And, the Democrat and Chronicle notes, Brooks even accompanied Fennie on a Washington lobbying trip in March.

While a Brooks spokesman told the paper that all of Fennie’s contracts were with “independent authorities that do not report to the county or the county executive,” and claimed none were with the county itself, the paper noted that that statement was apparently false. A ThinkProgress review of lobbying disclosure forms confirms that Fennie has directly represented the county since 2008 and receives $80,000 a year for his services.

While her campaign website boasts that Brooks is “well-known for her fiscally responsible leadership and commitment to best serving the interests of local taxpayers,” not everyone believes the county’s spending on Fennie’s lobbying firm was a good use of funds. In a 2010 column, Republican Rochester talk show host Bob Lonsberry observed that the apparently symbiotic relationship between Brooks and Fennie “smells” and “makes you wonder what the behind-the-scenes connection is.”

Neither Fennie nor the Brooks campaign responded immediately to a request for comment.

Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, an ally of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), is currently facing ethics charges due to allegations that he placed a fellow justice in a chokehold during an argument. Walker, however, now appears to have adopted a selection process for new members of this commission that will ensure Prosser will receive favorable treatment in the future:

Gov. Scott Walker relied on recommendations from a former Assembly speaker who once worked for state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser in appointing members of a commission investigating Prosser, newly released records show.

Three of the five people Walker appointed to the state Judicial Commission earlier this year were presented to the governor by former Assembly Speaker John Gard, the president of Wisconsin Businesses Inc. and a former lobbyist for school voucher proponents School Choice Wisconsin.

Gard told an aide to Walker that he had found people for the commission who were “fiercely conservative” and “will never wimp out,” according to an email recently released along with other documents under the state’s open records law. Gard also wrote that he’d told one of the appointees “what we were looking for and (he) said he would do it if needed,” but Gard’s email didn’t provide more specifics than that.

If it were not for the fact that a state governor’s decisions actually impact millions of lives, this kind of backroom dealing would be comic. Here we have a corporate lobbyist and former staffer to a prominent politician handpicking the people who will investigate whether that same politicians violated ethics rules — and all the time promising that these “fiercely conservative” appointments can be relied upon to toe the party line on an ethics commission.

The mere fact that in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin there is a party line to be toed on ethics is itself extraordinary.