The Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed a pair of lawsuits six weeks before the election that seek records from the administrations of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson related to issues that have been campaign fodder for conservatives.
Read More »Tag Archives: Bill Lueders
Wisconsin Supreme Court says COVID records can be released
A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday said the state health department can release data on coronavirus outbreak cases, information sought two years ago near the beginning of the pandemic.
Read More »Democratic lawmaker sued over alleged open-records violation
A conservative law firm has sued a Democratic state lawmaker for supposed violations of the Wisconsin open-records law after charging more than $3,000 for requested records, opening the latest front in an ongoing battle over whether emails must be provided electronically or on paper.
Read More »Reporter sues lawmaker over electronic records
A reporter has filed a lawsuit demanding a judge force a state lawmaker turn over more than 1,000 pages of records in an electronic format.
Read More »Analysis: Many court clerks charge for copying
Many court clerks in Wisconsin are charging citizens for court records — even though a 2014 attorney general's opinion says people are allowed to use their own cellphones to photograph court records for free.
Read More »Book rips into both political parties
Any lingering doubts about the nonpartisan bona fides of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the state campaign finance watchdog, should be annihilated by Mike McCabe’s new book, “Blue Jeans in High Places.”
Read More »John Doe probe perceptions vs. reality
A recent column I wrote on the stalled John Doe probe into allegedly illegal campaign activities drew an impassioned email from a reader in Appleton.
Read More »John Doe ruling alters campaign terrain
There seemed to be no doubt about it: The conduct that state Senate President Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, was recently caught on tape discussing – creating an outside group to attack his Democratic opponent – is against the law.
Read More »Voting bills get little lobby support
Some Republican state lawmakers, upset by a federal judge’s ruling against the state’s voter identification law, are vowing to introduce new legislation.
Read More »Big money backfires in local races
One day before the U.S. Supreme Court opened new spigots of campaign cash, well-backed groups seeking to sway elections in two northern Wisconsin counties, Polk and Iron, inadvertently drove home another point: Throwing money into the process can hurt as well as help.
Read More »State needs openness advocates
Careful readers may have noticed that while many papers carry this column on their opinion pages, it is not an especially opinionated column.
Read More »Redistricting isn’t going away
Few legislative causes have drawn as much interest and as little momentum as redistricting, the drawing of new voter boundaries after each 10-year census.
Read More »View from around the state: Don’t restrict court record access
If you're looking for a sign of spring in Wisconsin, opponents of openness are once again proposing restrictions on public information contained on one of the nation's most accessible online systems of court records.
Read More »Debate continues over attempt to limit CCAP
Supporters of a bill that would remove case information from the state courts’ online records system said Thursday that the harm it would undo far outweighs the loss of the public’s ability to easily obtain court records.
Read More »Talk is cheap in John Doe probe
A lot of folks — perhaps too many — are spouting off about the John Doe probe launched by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office into the campaign of Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and more than two dozen conservative groups, among others.
Recusal debate hits state Supreme Court race
In 2010, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated a criminal conviction against Dimitri Henley.
State’s online court records withstand challenges
Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, the public's online access to court records in the state, has survived several attempts on its life through the years but remains in constant jeopardy, the president of a watchdog group says.
Read More »