U.S. District Court Judge James D. Peterson denied CCL’s motion for a temporary restraining order on behalf of Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson as unnecessary because the results of the April 7, 2015 vote on a state constitutional amendment changing the selection process for chief justice will not be certified until April 29, so that no one could act on it before then. The ruling, he wrote, was not a decision on the merits. He also set a April 21st status conference to finalize a briefing schedule and promised to resolve the issue quickly.

The lawsuit, filed the day after the election, has attracted coverage in the New York Times, the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Dom's Domain, Green Bay Press Gazette and a Wall Street Journal editorial.

CCL’s Robert S. Peck and Kathryn Minton represent Chief Justice Abrahamson and five voters who supported her reelection in 2009 for a term that ends in 2019.