Louis B. Butler

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.

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. Business groups, including Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), paid for a large number of issue ads in this campaign cycle, although the Butler campaign outspent Gableman's by several hundred thousand dollars.

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.

On September 30, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Butler to serve as United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. However, his nomination was returned to the President on December 24, 2009. 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: "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." His nomination was returned to the President on December 17, 2011, pursuant to the rules of the Senate.