Justice Shirley Abrahamson is undergoing medical tests and been participating in Wisconsin cases only by phone

MADISON - Long-time Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson is undergoing medical tests and hasn't been in court for more than a week.

While the testing is being done, Abrahamson has been listening to arguments by telephone so she can participate in the cases, according to her office. Details about the testing were not provided.

Abrahamson, who is 84 and has been on the court since 1976, also missed arguments in three cases in October. That time, she didn't listen in by phone and stepped aside from rendering decisions. She said she missed those arguments because she hadn't been feeling well but days later said she was feeling good.

Abrahamson wasn't present for all the arguments that have been held since last week.

On Thursday, the court heard a high-profile challenge to the state's cap on medical malpractice payments and a lawsuit by a Marquette University professor who says he was wrongly suspended after he called out a graduate student on his blog.

At the beginning of the medical malpractice arguments, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack said that Abrahamson would be participating by phone, adding, "If you hear a question from above, it's Justice Abrahamson."

Abrahamson is in the minority on a court controlled 5-2 by conservatives. The makeup is expected to shift to a 4-3 conservative majority in August, when Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet will be sworn in after winning a high court election this month.

Abrahamson's term on the court runs through next year, when she would face re-election. She did not respond to an email from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sent the day after Dallet won asking if she planned to run in April 2019 for another 10-year term on the court.

Nationally known and revered in liberal circles, Abrahamson served as chief justice from 1996 to 2015. She lost that top position after voters amended the state constitution to allow the members of the court to chose the chief justice, rather than having it automatically go to the most senior member. 

Abrahamson filed a federal lawsuit to try to stay on as chief justice, but lost the case.

Cary Spivak of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.