1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court election

none July 2025 July 2025 1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court election Wisconsin presidential no 1964 1966 April 6, 1965 Nathan S. Heffernan (Wisconsin Supreme Court justice) portrait, circa 1965 (3x4).jpg Nathan Heffernan c0c0c0 376,183 50.92% Howard H. Boyle (1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate) portrait photograph.jpg Howard H. Boyle Jr. c0c0c0 362,604 49.08% File:1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court election results.svg Heffernan: #51C2C2 50–60% #2AACAC 60–70% #009696 70–80%Boyle: #FF9A50 50–60% #EE8E50 60–70% #D69850 70–80% Justice Nathan Heffernan Nathan Heffernan 1958 Wisconsin Supreme Court election 1958 1975 Wisconsin Supreme Court election 1975 The 1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court election was held on Tuesday, April 6, 1965, to elect a justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term. In the election, which saw low turnout, incumbent justice Nathan Heffernan (who had been appointed the previous year to fill a vacancy) narrowly defeated challenger Howard H. Boyle Jr. Background In 1964, Heffernan was appointed by Governor John W. Reynolds Jr. to fill the vacancy on the court created by the death of then-incumbent justice William H. Dieterich.Justice Nathan S. Heffernan https://www.wicourts.gov/courts/supreme/justices/retired/heffernan.htm WICourts.gov Wisconsin Court System 5 July 2025Justice William H. Dieterich https://www.wicourts.gov/courts/supreme/justices/retired/dieterich.htm Wisconsin Court System October 3, 2026 The 1965 election was the first election Heffernan faced to retain his seat. The vacancy resulted in an early election for the seat in 1965. In accordance with the specifications of the state constitution, the 1965 election was to contest a fresh ten-year full term (as opposed to a special election to only a partial unexpired term).Portraits of Justice https://www.wicourts.gov/courts/supreme/docs/portraitsofjustice.pdf Wisconsin Courts Wisconsin Historical Society Press 27 March 2025 IX, X, and 59 2003 In October 1964,Barnes v. State https://law.justia.com/cases/wisconsin/supreme-court/1964/25-wis-2d-116-6.html Wisconsin Supreme Court Justia Law 5 July 2025 en Heffernan sided with the majority in the Barnes v. State ruling in which the court set aside a known drug user's conviction for possession of marijuana after finding that the marijuana had been discovered by an search conducted on unreasonable grounds (rendering it fruit of the poisonous tree by virtue of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution). While this ruling generated little media attention or public reaction, it would become a key topic of the 1965 judicial election. The previous year, attorney Howard H. Boyle Jr. had challenged incumbent justice Horace W. Wilkie. Wilkie prevailed by a narrower-than-expected margin after Boyle ran a campaign centered on criticizing Wilkie as promoting "smut" due to siding in the majority in the early-1964 McCauley v. Tropic of Cancer decision, in which the court held that the novel Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller was not legally obscene. The outcome of this case was unpopular with the public. Candidates Nathan Heffernan, incumbent justice since 1964 (appointed by governor) Howard H. Boyle Jr., Beaver Dam-based attorney;Boyle Second High In Vote For Justice https://www.newspapers.com/image/1053269021 1 Hanley Daniel P. United Press International Newspapers.com subscription Tri-County Citizen 4 July 2025 en March 11, 1964 runner-up in the 1964 Supreme Court election; candidate U.S. senate candidate in 1956 and 1957.A Question of Judicial Ethics https://www.newspapers.com/image/287570745 Newspapers.com subscription The Post-Crescent 4 July 2025 en March 15, 1964 Campaign Boyle centered his campaign by assailing the court's current composition for having what he characterized as an "ultraliberal" ideological lean. He pointed primarily to the Barnes ruling, and secondarily to the earlier Tropic of Cancer ruling. However, while the Tropic of Thunder ruling had received great attention and generated broad negative public sentiment that benefited Boyle's 1964 campaign, the Barnes ruling had gone largely unnoticed by the media and failed to attract the same vigorous public outrage. While the result of the election would be close, its low turnout indicated that (unlike 1964) there was not a strong sentiment motivating voters.Koehler Michael Baseball, Apple Pie and Judicial Elections: An Analysis of the 1967 Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Marquette Law Review 1 January 2001 85 1 223 https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol85/iss1/8/ 4 July 2025 Results The voter turnout of the election was regarded to be very low. 1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court election | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General election (April 6, 1965)The Wisconsin Blue Book 1966 https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/ANICGVB65P4ZNO8M/pages/AZJTYEHEFKIEUJ8J University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries Wisconsin Secretary of State 5 July 2025 1966 Nonpartisan politician Nathan S. Heffernan (incumbent) 376183 50.92 Nonpartisan politician Howard H. Boyle Jr. 362604 49.08 738787 100 References Category:Wisconsin Supreme Court elections supreme court Wisconsin