Kudos to Kremers

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Last week, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, in an irresponsible act of grandstanding, sent a letter to Milwaukee County Chief Judge Jeffrey Kremers, saying in part, “I ask that you institute a moratorium on Milwaukee County foreclosure proceedings for 60 days, or until we can implement [a] mediation program for new foreclosure filings.”

http://www.dailyreporter.com/item.cfm?recid=20049949&snippet=f

Judge Kremers admirably refused this unlawful demand.

In one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most infamous decisions ever, the court upheld the legality of a Minnesota law imposing a moratorium against a challenge that the moratorium violated the Constitution’s Contracts Clause. Home Building & Loan Ass’n. v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934).

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/search/display.html?terms=blaisdell&url=/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0290_0398_ZS.html

As badly as the reasoning in Blaisdell may be, if the state of Wisconsin were to impose such a moratorium, it would pass muster under current precedent.

However, a moratorium imposed by the circuit courts without state authority supporting it would clearly not be lawful.

Had Judge Kremers acceded to Mayor Barrett’s unreasonable demand, any plaintiff in a foreclosure action could easily have gone to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, which would have summarily issued a writ of mandamus, ordering the circuit courts to do their job.

In times of economic crisis, it is easy for irresponsible politicians to make unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful demands. We are fortunate to have a much more responsible public official like Judge Kremers leading the Milwaukee County courts, and refusing to abdicate the courts’ roles.