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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders jonathan brostoff Michael Schraa Scott Krug Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Scott Krug

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Carlo Esqueda Cindy Joosten Circuit court Kathleen Dye Sharon Millermon Wisconsin Clerks of Circuit Court Association

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.”

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Mike McCabe Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders John Doe investigation Scott Walker

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders John Doe investigation Rudolph Randa

Some Republican state lawmakers, upset by a federal judge’s ruling against the state’s voter identification law, are vowing to introduce new legislation.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Lynn Adelman voter ID

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Erik Severson

Careful readers may have noticed that while many papers carry this column on their opinion pages, it is not an especially opinionated column.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Dale Schultz redistricting Tim Cullen

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders CCAP Glenn Grothman

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders CCAP Garey Bies Glenn Grothman Jerry Petrowski Joel Kleefisch John Voelker Mary Czaja Robin Vos

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders David Clarke Francis Schmitz John Chisholm John Doe investigation Scott Walker Wisconsin District Attorneys Association

In 2010, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated a criminal conviction against Dimitri Henley.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders Ed Fallone Pat Roggensack Scott Walker Wisconsin Supreme Court

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.

Tagged with: Bill Lueders CCAP Consolidated Court Automation Programs Supreme Court Wisconsin Bar Association Wisconsin Circuit Court Access