MADISON -- Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Annette Ziegler might have to stare down two ethics-violation hearings before taking her seat less than three months from now.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court today denied Ziegler's petition filed April 26 to act against the Wisconsin Ethics Board's authority to discipline her on ethics complaints. Justice Patience Drake Roggensack was the lone dissenter.

The Supreme Court also denied Ziegler's motion for an order temporarily preventing the Ethics Board from conducting further proceedings on the complaints until the court had heard her petition.

Ziegler gained a seven-day reprieve last week after the Supreme Court gave the Ethics Board until yesterday (May 7) to respond to her petition, LegalNewsLine reported.

The Ethics Board duly filed its response to Ziegler's petition May 7, the Supreme Court stated in today's ruling.

The future Supreme Court justice argued in her April 26 petition that only the state's Judicial Commission could sit in judgement of fellow judges, LegalNewsLine reported last month.

Today's ruling is a blow to Ziegler, who will now have to face an Ethics Board hearing before a district court judge May 17. There the Board will recommend that Ziegler be found guilty on five counts carrying fines of $5,000 each.

Six days before filing her petition, the state's Judicial Commission announced it would investigate 17 ethical allegations against Ziegler. Most relate to legal cases Ziegler heard involving a bank on which her husband served as director.

Ziegler won election to the Supreme Court in early March after a contentious, heavily-funded campaign now being blamed for a recent push for public-financing of Supreme Court campaigns.

Punishments for Judicial Commission violations are administered by the state's Supreme Court.