1965 Wisconsin Supreme Court election
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 narrowly defeated challenger Howard H. Boyle Jr.
Background
In 1964, Heffernan was appointed by Governor John W. Reynolds Jr. to fill a vacancy on the court. The 1965 election was his first election 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.In October 1964, 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. While this ruling generated little media attention or public reaction, it would become a key topic of the 1965 judicial election.
Earlier in 1964, 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
- Howard H. Boyle Jr., Beaver Dam-based attorney; runner-up in the 1964 Supreme Court election; candidate U.S. senate candidate in 1956 and 1957.