Butler was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Jim Doyle in August 2004; his term expired on July 31, 2008.

[1] After serving as an assistant state public defender from 1979 to 1992, Louis Butler was appointed to the Municipal Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[1] Butler campaigned for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2000, but lost his election bid to incumbent Diane Sykes by a wide margin.

The Wall Street Journal argued this loss stemmed from opinions he wrote in medical malpractice, search and seizure, and product liability cases.

[3] Since his defeat, Butler agreed to serve a two-year term as Justice-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he would teach several courses and clinics for the 2008–2010 academic years.