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Tagged with: Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court
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Bench Blog says ‘goodbye’ with review of Colorado baker case
The U. S. Supreme Court sidestepped the issue of whether a Colorado baker discriminated against a gay couple seeking a wedding cake and instead decided that the baker had been treated unfairly by the commission adjudicating the discrimination charge.
Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto
Read More »View from around the state: Abrahamson broke through many barriers to serve citizens
Shirley Abrahamson, the longest-serving Supreme Court justice in Wisconsin history, was often revered or despised depending on one's political viewpoint.
Tagged with: Shirley Abrahamson
Read More »Abrahamson leaves legacy to remember
When Shirley Abrahamson leaves the state Supreme Court next year, she will leave a legacy to remember.
Tagged with: Lester Pines Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court
Read More »View from around the state: Hold parents responsible for loose guns
The teenager who shot and killed eight students and two teachers this month at a Santa Fe, Texas, high school got his weapons — a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol — from his father.
Tagged with: guns
Read More »View from around the state: Court ruling likely to alter spectator sports
The Supreme Court voted last week to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Sports gambling is not now legal nationwide, but the ruling allows states to pass their own laws to make it so.
Tagged with: gambling U.S. Supreme Court
Read More »BENCH BLOG: Cumulative evidence and a new form of recantation
In State v. McAlister a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court struggled to appropriately define cumulative evidence and introduces a contrived definition of recantation.
Tagged with: Bench Blog Emily Mueller Jean DiMotto State v. McAlister
Read More »How to avoid becoming the next Facebook privacy problem
Facebook recently divulged that the personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with a third party.
Tagged with: Facebook personal data privacy
Read More »State lawmakers should stop dodging open-records law
Wisconsin added another chapter to its litigious history of skirmishes with lawmakers over releasing copies of public records under the state's open-records law last week.
Read More »View from around the state: Kooyenga owes taxpayers for his actions
We legally defend, with our tax dollars, our elected officials when they are sued for actions taken as part of their official duties. That's only natural and fair; the elected official shouldn't be personally liable for good-faith discharge of his or her duties.
Tagged with: Dale Kooyenga
Read More »New changes to Wisconsin civil procedure
The Wisconsin Legislature has made important new rules for civil litigation, implemented new periods of limitations and repose, and made other significant changes to state law.
Tagged with: Civil Procedure
Read More »View from around the state: Bush, Phillips made our country a better place
We lost two outstanding Americans last week — nationally, former first lady Barbara Bush, and here in Wisconsin, the trailblazing civil rights champion Vel Phillips.
Tagged with: Vel Phillips
Read More »Murder case tests limits of third-party consent
Truth is stranger than fiction. The compelling facts in State v. Torres arose in Sheboygan County in 2014. Dorian Torres was the son of divorced parents, Emilio and Shelly.
Tagged with: Search and Seizure
Read More »View from around the state: Dallet’s win reassuring for high court
Gov. Scott Walker tweeted a warning to fellow Republicans on Election Night last week: "Tonight's results show we are at risk of a (hashtag) #BlueWave in WI. The Far Left is driven by anger & hatred — we must counter it with optimism & organization."
Tagged with: Michael Screnock Rebecca Dallet
Read More »Closing Arguments: Questions remain over state’s Keller dues policies
In a state with a mandatory bar, it’s perhaps inevitable that the dues lawyers must pay to practice law should become a subject of debate from time to time. Wisconsin has been no stranger to these controversies. In recent years, ...
Tagged with: Closing Arguments Jon Erik Kingstad Keller Keller dues Michelle Behnke
Read More »View from around the state: Massive settlement underscores need for youth prison reform
Anyone needing further proof of the need to reform Wisconsin's juvenile corrections system was given 18.9 million reasons last week.
Tagged with: DOC settlement Sydni Briggs
Read More »THE IP GUIDE: Another federal decision broadens trademark protection
The courts have been busy lately reviewing federal trademark law. Understanding new decisions and recent trends is important for all growing businesses, since company brands, logos, and slogans are oftentimes their most valuable assets.
Tagged with: Intellectual Property
Read More »BENCH BLOG: Three billboards in Dane County
Adams Outdoor Advertising leased three billboards near the Dane County Regional Airport. Before the expiration of the lease, Adams Outdoor Advertising sought to renew it.
Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto
Read More »View from around the state: Wisconsin’s Gordon Giampietro is unacceptable federal court nominee
Even by the low standards that President Trump has set for selecting his judicial nominees, Gordon Giampietro, the president's pick to fill an open federal judgeship for Wisconsin's Eastern District, is an exceptionally bad prospect.
Tagged with: Gordon Giampietro
Read More »Congress, not Trump, must ban bump stocks
In the wake of yet another mass shooting at a school — this one in Parkland, Fla., leaving 14 students and three staff members dead — President Donald Trump floated several proposals in response to the violence.
Tagged with: Donald Trump firearms guns Second Amendment
Read More »Closing Arguments: Taking sides on tort reform
Shortly after Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011, he and his fellow Republicans in the state Legislature passed sweeping legislation touching on many corners of the state’s tort laws. Since then, scarcely a year has gone by without Republican ...
Tagged with: Closing Arguments tort reform
Read More »Let’s cut the BS
Despite last week’s mass murder in Florida and its many predecessors, I don’t want to take away your gun.
Read More »Misuse of the disciplinary system: When squealing isn’t appealing
Remember when you were a kid and tattling was an art form? Perhaps you were the tattle-tale, never hesitating to rat out a classmate for flooding the sink again, or to throw your brother under the bus for breaking a ...
Tagged with: office of lawyer regulation OLR
Read More »CLOSING ARGUMENTS: Getting down to tax
Looking for a way to raise money for various road and building projects without raising the property tax levy, Brown County officials last year enacted an ordinance instituting a 0.5 percent local sales and use tax.
Tagged with: sales tax tax levy taxes
Read More »Pro rata distributions amid insufficient policy limits
An insurance company deposited its remaining policy limits with the court after settling with several, but not all, of the claimants in a personal-injury lawsuit.
Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto
Read More »View from around the state: Wanggaard’s bill puts crime victims first
A judge's order of restitution doesn't make a criminal incident magically disappear, nor does it remove the memory of the incident from the victim's mind. It's an attempt by the judge to make things right for the victim by ordering the convicted person to pay back the victim for criminal wrongdoing against that person.
Tagged with: criminal code Van Wanggaard
Read More »View from around the state: Wrongful conviction victims could get more compensation
In an era of extreme partisanship, here’s an example of bipartisanship at the Capitol: An Assembly committee has unanimously approved legislation that would boost compensation for people wrongfully imprisoned.
Tagged with: Claims Board Wisconsin Innocence Project
Read More »View from around the state: Eschewing tradition, Supreme Court candidate Burns openly shares political views
After the state Department of Justice released its report on the leak of John Doe records, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Tim Burns unloaded on Twitter.
Tagged with: Tim Burns
Read More »The ethics of bearing bad news
Recently, I had to tell a client some bad news. Not run-of-the-mill, we-lost-a-motion bad news, but life-changing, disruptive bad news that I could not do anything to change.
Read More »CRITIC’S CORNER: Defense of jury instruction 140 falls flat
Wisconsin’s criminal jury instruction 140 describes the prosecutor’s burden of proof as “beyond a reasonable doubt.” However, it then contradicts itself by telling the jury “not to search for doubt” but instead “to search for the truth.”
Tagged with: Critic's Corner Michael D. Cicchini Michael Griesbach
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