The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously sided with open-government advocates Thursday in a closely watched case over whether the meeting of a committee charged with reviewing course material in the Appleton school district was lawfully closed.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court wrestled with how broadly to apply the state's open meetings law in a case Wednesday that open government advocates warn could provide a gateway to getting around public access requirements.

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources says it will no longer host social dinners for board members the night before regular meetings.

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student has filed a lawsuit alleging a school committee violated the state's open meetings law when it closed disciplinary hearings involving him.

Senate Republicans were "giddy" about tightening voting rules in Wisconsin during a closed-door meeting in 2011, a former GOP staffer testified in federal court this week.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors over alleged violations of the state’s open meetings law.

The state Justice Department is getting ready to hold its annual seminars on Wisconsin's open meetings and public records laws.

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A conservative Wisconsin state Supreme Court justice who staved off an unusually intense campaign to replace him this summer will not face criminal charges over allegations that he tried to choke a liberal colleague, a prosecutor said Thursday. Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett, a special prosecutor in the case, said ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has vacated the order of Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, enjoining publication of the collective bargaining bill. In an unauthored opinion, the court affirmed that Goodland v. Zimmerman, 243 Wis. 459, 10 N.W.2d 180 (1943), remains valid law in Wisconsin, notwithstanding the enactment of the Open Meetings Law and its application to the legislature. In Goodland, ...

Many legal issues were discussed during the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 5-hour-plus oral argument Monday. At issue is Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi’s enjoining the collective bargaining law from taking effect. But the justices repeatedly returned the focus of the argument to one issue: Was there a constitutional violation in how the law was enacted? In general, a procedural ...

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TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Attorneys for Republican lawmakers asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday to overturn a judge’s order blocking the state’s polarizing union rights law, while Democrats urged the justices to uphold the ruling or make the GOP go through the usual — and slow — appeals process. The court heard hours of ...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Democratic prosecutor says a lawsuit alleging Republicans violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law in the run-up to passing Gov. Scott Walker’s divisive union rights law can go on despite their immunity claims. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne alleges Republican lawmakers didn’t give proper public notice that a committee was about to meet on the proposal ...

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An attorney for the state of Wisconsin argued Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging Gov. Scott Walker’s divisive collective bargaining law should be dismissed because it is not ripe given that the law has not yet taken effect. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said she would issue a written ruling in ...

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press Madison, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge says she’s keeping in place her restraining order preventing a law stripping most public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights from going into effect while she considers whether the state open meetings law was broken in the process of passing the law. Dane County Circuit Judge ...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Madison prosecutor is trying to show in court that no legislative rules allowed lawmakers to convene a special committee to debate the Wisconsin’s divisive collective bargaining law without a day’s notice. Senate Chief Clerk Robert Marchant testified on Friday that he believed a Senate rule trumped the 24-hour notice required in the state’s open meetings ...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin prosecutor says a judge properly blocked publication of a contentious new collective bargaining law. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne has accused Republican lawmakers of violating the state’s open meetings law during debate on the proposal. Judge Maryann Sumi on Friday issued an emergency order halting publication of the law, the last step before ...

By JASON SMATHERS and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state’s new and contentious collective bargaining law from taking effect, raising the possibility that the Legislature may have to vote again to pass the bill. Lawmakers had approved Gov. Scott Walker’s measure last week, breaking a three-week stalemate caused by ...

TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican lawmakers violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law when they amended a contentious plan that bars most public employees from collective bargaining, a Madison prosecutor alleged in a lawsuit Wednesday. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne’s legal challenge is the second from a county official since Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill into ...

Challenging the legality of Wednesday’s hastily convened state legislative committee meeting on collective bargaining could do little more than stall the bill’s approval, according to members of the legal community. The Joint Committee of Conference met at 6 p.m. Wednesday and removed spending measures from the legislation, which would eliminate most collective bargaining rights for public workers. Senate Republicans than ...