Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

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 ...

A little while back, I was informed that somebody who plays for the Milwaukee Brewers had injured himself playing basketball and would be out for the beginning of the baseball season, if not longer.

I arrived at work the other morning, all caffeinated and nicotined-up, excited about corrupting the youth of Milwaukee, the same as I do every other day.

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 ...

I can understand why not everyone is as thrilled as I am with the governor’s proposed budget.

It’s a pity I’m not as great a writer as William Faulkner.

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 ...

The abuse of eminent domain in the United States is at least as old as the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954), in which the court shamelessly held that confiscating the property of homeowners and business owners, in order to transfer it to politically-connected cronies, was a valid public use, comparable to building a public road.

It was January in Wisconsin, and I was sitting in my dining room, watching the cardinals and chickadees at the birdfeeder through the window. I was shoveling fistfuls of fresh blueberries imported from Chile into my gullet, while I pondered how wonderful international trade is.

So who is, or was, your favorite client?

After the mighty Chicago Bears lost the NFC Championship Game to the lowly Green Bay Packers, one commentator remarked that, at this point, Jay Cutler has about as much respect in the NFL as Barry Manilow does.

The key to remaining young at heart, I believe, is to find amusement in human stupidity, rather than defaulting to furious.

The Wisconsin director for some organization called the National Federation of Independent Business recently said that Wisconsin has one of the most "promiscuous" tort systems in the country. Inasmuch as I've always been a really big fan of promiscuous behavior, I figured I should check this out.

The State is not God."

I know that you young people already know everything and hate to listen to advice from old misanthropes, but this is important, so please read on.

Otto von Bismarck is frequently attributed with saying that no man should see how laws or sausages are made.

The holidays are coming, and if you're like me, that means you have to take a day or two off work and spend it with your family instead.

You would think that litigation over free speech would go away. Is it really so much to ask of people that they refrain from outlawing others from saying what they want?

This week, the Nobel Prizes will be awarded in Stockholm.

This week, The Dark Side is going to do something it has never done before - write something that everyone, even progressives, will agree with - with one small caveat: I don't expect the judges on the 7th Circuit to agree.

Thanksgiving is this week, which means I'm being heavily badgered by folks who want me to make them pumpkin cheesecakes for the holiday, or at least give them my recipe.

I recently read about an Orthodox Jew in prison in Indiana who successfully sued the Indiana Department of Corrections for violating his First Amendment by giving him vegan meals instead of kosher meals.

Fox News commentator Juan Williams and I have a lot in common: we've both been banished from public radio.

As I drove past a billboard recently, there was a press conference going on. A bunch of special interest groups were protesting that the billboard was part of a vast conspiracy to keep law-abiding citizens from driving cars.

I had a very nice lunch recently with a judge who handles a family court calendar, swapping war stories and such.

I've always thought that getting tarred and feathered was something that only happened in Mark Twain novels. But I think it could still happen today.

There has been a great hullabaloo lately about Wisconsin's system of attorney discipline.

I recently watched the season premiere of my favorite television show.