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The latest cause de jour is passage of what its proponents call “Caylee’s Law,” which would make it a federal crime for a parent not to report a missing child within 24 hours.

Hanging out with some of the carnies who came to town this year, I was astonished at how, in a mere 10 years, the carnival industry had become so professional. And they did it without even spending mandatory carnie dues on a public image campaign.

I was having a nice conversation with another attorney the other day when we began talking about environmental law. We were both in agreement that the work environmental defense lawyers do is very important. But in the middle of the conversation, we discovered that we have vastly different definitions of what makes an environmental defense lawyer.

There is one type of lawyer the profession has no room for -- the molly-coddler.

Friday is what the progressives call “Earth Day.” I prefer to celebrate my own holiday, “Human Achievement Day.”

Congratulations to Kelli Thompson on being named the state’s new public defender.

I recently learned a new Yiddish term while reading a novel called "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok: "pilpul."

Everyone has to have faith in something or somebody. I have faith in the actuaries who work for insurance companies. If they say women should have lower rates for life insurance than men, then I know women live longer than men on average. If they base car insurance rates on zip codes, then I know zip codes are valid determinants ...

This is an example of what is wrong with public sector unions. I’m not attacking public sector unions here. They have their pros and cons. But this case is a good example of one of the cons — excessive litigation that private sector unions and employers wouldn’t pursue. It is a 188-page decision from the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. It ...

Every few months, our local left-wing propaganda machine, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, goes on a new jihad about something or other, whether it be making our already draconian drunk driving laws even more draconian, or trying to outlaw a perfectly safe chemical like BPA.

I was in Madison one day last week. Those of you who enjoy my work will be happy to know that I was not burned at the stake for heresy. Instead, I had a lovely time.

When I was young, it was an annual event to go see the Grateful Dead perform at Alpine Valley. You can imagine what that entailed. I never went to the extreme of traveling around the country to follow the band. Some people have always had to work, you know. But when they came to town every summer, it was a ...

Last month, a New Jersey man was arrested and charged with making death threats against three judges on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The motivation for the threats was the unremarkable opinion in NRA v. City of Chicago, No. 08-4241 (June 2, 2009). Without deciding the merits of the Second Amendment issue, the court held that it was bound ...

July 1 will be a landmark day in Wisconsin legal history. Starting that day, attorneys will be allowed to cite some unpublished Court of Appeals' opinions. Unpublished but authored opinions issued on July 1 or after can be cited for persuasive, but not precedential, authority. Per curiam opinions and summary dispositions still won't be citable. When the Supreme Court amended ...

Whether to change Wisconsin’s rules governing joint and several liability is an issue that will certainly rise again, even if it is not included in the state’s budget bill. I don’t intend here to take any position on what the optimum rules are — whether 51 percent liability should be required for joint and several liability, or only one percent. ...

I have long opposed changes to how Wisconsin elects its judges. From proposals for appointment, to so-called “merit-selection,” to limits on the amount of campaign contributions, I have opposed them all. But I’m switching sides, now. What is the cause of the sudden change of heart, you ask? Have I suddenly decided that it is something other than a flagrant ...

Today, May 28, Rep. Gordon Hintz is proposing a new law to outlaw payday loans. http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=159936 That’s not what the law actually says, of course. It merely imposes a cap of 36 percent interest annually on such loans. Consider the effect, however. A press release from Rep. Hintz notes that, if a consumer borrows $100 for two weeks, and pays ...

Apparently, some of the federal judges at the Seventh Circuit Bar Association convention this week believe that some attorneys’ clothing choices are inappropriate. It seems pretty simple to me: wear your conservative paisley ties at trial, especially when you do lots of child sexual assault cases, and save the whimsical ties for scheduling conferences. I’m sure with women, it’s a ...

A dissent in a recent Fifth Circuit case exhibits a shocking disregard for the right of citizens to counsel and to seek redress from the government. In short, the owner of beachfront property in Texas is suing the state under the Takings Clause, claiming that a beachfront easement granted by Texas statutes constitutes a taking of property. The dissenting judge, ...

Taxes can make hypocrites of us all. Men who exaggerate their income when they meet women will plead penury to the IRS. Families who think their home is priceless will call it a dump to the tax assessor. The “buy local” crowd will buy cigarettes off the back of a truck that just arrived from Kentucky rather than the corner ...

This blog post by Amber Taylor is the most sensible thing you can find out there on law schools and their curricula. I may be one of those lawyers who ceased actively practicing law after nine years to write full-time. But what the legal profession needs is law schools that teach students to be lawyers in classes that teach substantive ...

A free 120-page primer from the Federal Judicial Center on the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals. Link to PDF

After the Wisconsin Supreme Court approved amending Rule 809.23 to permit citation to some unpublished opinions, they formed a committee to see how the new rule will work. It doesn’t take effect until July 1, and only opinions issued after that date can be cited. Nevertheless, as a member of that committee, I want to encourage our readers to feel ...

Years ago, one of the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee (not Mayor Tom Barrett) proposed that Milwaukee should charge long-term residents of their homes less in property taxes than newcomers. She thought it was terrible that retirees should have their property taxes go up when gentrification of the neighborhood occurs. Such ideas are good politics for two reasons: first, it ...

State Representative Gary Sherman wants to amend the constitution, to do away with spring elections. Noting that voter turnout in November was 90%, but the spring election was only 19%, Sherman thinks its an embarrassment and undemocratic for only 19% of voters to select an office as important as Supreme Court Justice. I don’t see that as too low at ...

I recently accepted an appointment to represent a defendant charged with misdemeanor battery in a domestic violence context. It was my first such case in many years. Not much had changed, except for one thing. It is now a violation of federal law to possess a firearm if you have a DV misdemeanor conviction. Being a responsible attorney, I, of ...

We have all been hoping for clean judicial elections this spring. But alas, the first filth has been flung, and much to my horror, it is my own work. Every January, I count the affirmances and reversals of circuit court judges in the Court of Appeals, and compile charts (PDF) showing the results. Before I even proceed any further, let ...

Recently, a poll question running here at the Law Journal asked whether readers thought judges should be required to disclose their reasons when they recuse themselves from a case. The result was a 50/50 split on the issue. I had expected that our readers would overwhelmingly vote no, for two reasons. First, requiring judges to give their reasons for recusal ...

Congress has now passed, and President Obama has signed, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, effectively overturning the 2007 Supreme Court opinion in Ledbetter’s case, holding that employees could not sue under Title VII for discrimination that occurred more than 180 days earlier, on a theory that each new paycheck reflects the earlier discrimination. Link Congress also rejected ...

A divided panel of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently vacated a sentence based on comments by the white sentencing judge that the court found could be construed as exhibiting racial bias against the black defendant. http://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=35252 I will admit that the statements could be construed in this way. But I was struck by how similar the sentencing court’s comments ...