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Daily Bread for 12.10.24: U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Eau Claire Parents’ Challenge to Gender Identity Support Plans

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 32. Sunrise is 7:15, and sunset is 4:20, for 9 hours, 6 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 72.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5:00 PM.

On this day in 1864, during his March to the Sea, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a decision of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (based in Chicago):

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take a Wisconsin case that could have made it easier for parents to fight schools’ efforts to support transgender and nonbinary students.

Three of the court’s six conservatives — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh — said they would have taken the appeal.

A group of Eau Claire parents argued challenges to gender identity support policies are being dismissed by judges across the country before they can be fully litigated because parents can’t show they’ve been affected.

….

The Eau Claire Area School District of Wisconsin, which is defending its guidelines for ensuring a supportive environment for transgender students, countered that the parents are trying to create a new standard for lawsuits that would allow parents to preemptively challenge any school policy even if it doesn’t apply to them.

….

The template Gender Support Plan prepared by the Eau Claire Area School District in 2022 recognizes that parents may not always be involved in a plan’s creation for a student. School personnel are supposed to check with a student before discussing their transgender status with a parent. But the support plan will be released to parents who request it.

A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that none of the parents challenging the policy “has experienced an actual or imminent injury.”

See Maureen Groppe, Supreme Court rejects Wisconsin parents’ challenge to schools’ gender identity support plans, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 9, 2024.

Did Tesla Go From Cool to Cringe?:

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.3.24: Act 10 Ruled Unconstitutional, These Years Later

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 30. Sunrise is 7:08, and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 13 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1947, the first TV station in Wisconsin, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, is established. The seventeenth television station in the country, WTMJ-TV is the first in the Midwest.

We live in time when past judicial decisions are discarded, at the federal and state level. It should not surprise, although it still does, that prior legislation and prior court rulings to it are again set aside. And so, as one would have expected since July, Act 10 has been ruled unconstitutional:

Judge Jacob Frost ruled that Act 10, passed by the state Legislature’s Republican majority in 2011 and signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in his first year in office, was unconstitutional in making some public safety workers exempt from the law’s limits on unions but excluding other workers with similar jobs from those protections.

The ruling essentially confirmed Frost’s ruling on July 3, 2024, when he rejected motions by the state Legislature’s Republican leaders to dismiss the 2023 lawsuit challenging Act 10.

In that ruling, Frost declared that state Capitol Police, University of Wisconsin Police, and state conservation wardens were “treated unequally with no rational basis for that difference” because they were not included in the exemption that Act 10 had created for other law enforcement and public safety employees.

For that reason, the law’s categories of general and public safety employees, and its public safety employee exemption, were unconstitutional, Frost wrote then.

Frost reiterated that ruling Monday. “Act 10 as written by the Legislature specifically and narrowly defines ‘public safety employee,’” Frost wrote. “It is that definition which is unconstitutional.”

In addition, the judge rejected the suggestion that Act 10 could remain in effect without the law’s public safety employee carve-out, and that either the courts or the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission could resolve a constitutionally acceptable definition in the future.

“The Legislature cites no precedent for this bold argument that I should simply strike the unlawful definition but leave it to an agency and the courts to later define as they see fit,” Frost wrote. “Interpreting ‘public safety employee’ after striking the legislated definition would be an exercise in the absurd.”

See Erik Gunn, Judge strikes down core parts of Act 10 that stripped most public workers’ union rights, Wisconsin Examiner, December 2, 2024.

Video captures cliffside rescue in San Francisco:

This video captured the California Highway Patrol rescuing a man trapped on the side of a cliff above Baker Beach in San Francisco. The man was hoisted safely to the beach below.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 11.25.24: Wisconsin’s Next Election

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with afternoon showers and a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:59, and sunset is 4:24, for 9 hours, 24 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 26.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 5:30 PM, and the full board goes into closed session shortly after 6 PM, resuming open session at 7 PM. The City of Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30.

On this day in 1783, the last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

The next statewide election in Wisconsin will go to a spring general election in April. For the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s open seat (Justice Ann Walsh Bradley is retiring) there are two declared candidates. Note the contrast, as one of the candidates speaks in her own voice and the other speaks through his campaign:

….

In a statement, the Schimel campaign said “leftist judges in Wisconsin and around the country are failing to enforce our laws,” and called the Nov. 5 election “a repudiation of the left’s radical agenda that made life more dangerous and expensive for Wisconsinites.”

“From opening the border, to releasing criminals on our streets, to rogue judges on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court breaking norms to advance their radical agenda. Brad Schimel is a judge of the people who will stop the madness and defend what is right,” the statement said.

….

In a statement, Crawford said the state needs a court that is “committed to upholding the rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites.”

“I’ve spent my career standing up for Wisconsin values like safe communities, reproductive rights, clean air and water, and fair elections. As a prosecutor, I took on tough cases to hold criminals and sex offenders accountable and bring justice to victims. As an attorney, I fought for working people, families, and teachers when their rights were threatened and being trampled on,” she said. “Now, as a circuit court judge, I work every day to deliver justice impartially, keep our communities safe, and treat everyone fairly under the law.”

See Jessie Opoien, Fresh from a bruising Nov. 5 election Wisconsin turns to a battle over the Supreme Court, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 25, 2024.

Wisconsin Life | Fred Smith’s concrete wonderland:

Conspiracy Theories, Courts, Daily Bread, Gableman, Law, Laws/Regulations, Misconduct, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 11.20.24: Justice Comes for Former Justice Gableman

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with snowy conditions in the evening and a high of 41. Sunrise is 6:53, and sunset is 4:27, for 9 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 73.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1945, the Nuremberg trials against 24 Nazi war criminals begin at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.

These many years later, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice and current conspiracist Michael Gableman now finds himself the subject of a professional disciplinary complaint:

The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) filed a disciplinary complaint against former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman on Tuesday. In 10 counts, the complaint alleges Gableman violated numerous provisions of the Wisconsin Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys during and after his much-maligned investigation of the 2020 election. 

….

The first two counts against Gableman involve statements and actions he took after filing subpoenas against the mayors and city clerks of the cities of Green Bay and Madison. The complaint alleges that Gableman mischaracterized discussions he had with the lawyers for both cities, communicated with Green Bay’s city attorney when the city had obtained outside counsel in the matter, lied to Green Bay city officials about the work of his investigation and mischaracterized those actions when he filed a petition with a Waukesha County Circuit Court attempting to have the mayors of both cities arrested for not complying with his subpoenas. 

The third count alleges that Gableman made false statements in his testimony to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections when he accused officials at the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as well as the mayors of Green Bay and Madison, of “hiring high-priced lawyers” to conduct an “organized cover-up.”

See Henry Redman, Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation files disciplinary complaint against Gableman (‘Complaint alleges 10 counts of violations of state attorney code of conduct against former Supreme Court justice’), Wisconsin Examiner, November 19, 2024.

Redman’s reporting summarizes all ten Office of Lawyer Regulation complaints against Gableman. The full complaint appears immediately below:

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court adjudicates complaints from the Office of Lawyer Regulation alleging attorney misconduct under a set of published court rules. See SCR 20A, 20B (2023).

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide what, if any, sanctions Gableman merits against him. Apart from any disciplinary action (rightly decided only on the rules and facts before the court) one can say even now that Gableman’s political influence over the last four years has been among the most controversial of recent memory.

See from FREE WHITEWATER a post category dedicated to Michael Gableman.

Fox & Badger Enjoy a Snack:

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 11.12.24: Oral Argument at the Wisconsin Supreme Court Over an Abortion Ban

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:43, and sunset is 4:34, for 9 hours, 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 85.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM, and the Public Art Committee meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1938, Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.

Todd Richmond reports Wisconsin Supreme Court grapples with whether state’s 175-year-old abortion ban is valid:

A conservative prosecutor’s attorney struggled Monday to persuade the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reactivate the state’s 175-year-old abortion ban, drawing a tongue-lashing from two of the court’s liberal justices during oral arguments.

Sheboygan County’s Republican district attorney, Joel Urmanski, has asked the high court to overturn a Dane County judge’s ruling last year that invalidated the ban. A ruling isn’t expected for weeks but abortion advocates almost certainly will win the case given that liberal justices control the court. One of them, Janet Protasiewicz, remarked on the campaign trail that she supports abortion rights.

….

The ban stood until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide nullified it. Legislators never repealed the ban, however, and conservatives have argued the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe two years ago reactivated it. 

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit challenging the law in 2022. He argued that a 1985 Wisconsin law that prohibits abortion after a fetus reaches the point where it can survive outside the womb supersedes the ban. Some babies can survive with medical help after 21 weeks of gestation.

Urmanski contends that the ban was never repealed and that it can co-exist with the 1985 law because that law didn’t legalize abortion at any point. Other modern-day abortion restrictions also don’t legalize the practice, he argues.

Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled last year that the ban outlaws feticide — which she defined as the killing of a fetus without the mother’s consent — but not consensual abortions. The ruling emboldened Planned Parenthood to resume offering abortions in Wisconsin after halting procedures after Roe was overturned.

Urmanski asked the state Supreme Court in February to overturn Schlipper’s ruling without waiting for a lower appellate decision.

See Oral Argument in Josh Kaul v. Joel Urmanski, as DA for Sheboygan County, WI 2023AP002362 at Wiseye (free subscription req’d):

Wisconsin Supreme Court: Josh Kaul v. Joel Urmanski

As noted in yesterday’s post there is, however, a constitutional Supremacy Clause that, if relied upon following federal restrictions, would make state action moot.

Why methane emissions matter in the fight against climate change:

Courts, Daily Bread, Federal Government, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 11.11.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Abortion Lawsuit

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Good morning.

Veterans’ Day in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:42, and sunset is 4:35, for 9 hours, 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 75.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1918, Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne.

Sarah Lehr reports Wisconsin Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in abortion lawsuit (‘The case involves a 19th century law previously interpreted as banning abortions in the state’):

The state Supreme Court will hear Monday from attorneys on both sides of a case that could decide the future of abortion rights in Wisconsin.

Oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. before the seven-justice court, which flipped to a liberal majority in August of last year. 

Planned Parenthood is currently providing abortions at several clinics in Wisconsin, citing a lower court decision. But a ruling from the state’s highest court could provide more finality and clarity about the legal status of abortion in Wisconsin.

There is, however, a Supremacy Clause that, if relied upon following federal restrictions, would make state action moot.

Bells return to Notre Dame Cathedral after 2019 fire:

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Litigation

Daily Bread for 10.11.24: Yeah, Sure, But Who Fixes This Kind of Crazy?

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 7:04, and sunset is 6:18, for 11 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 58.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1986,  Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Iceland to continue discussions about scaling back IRBM arsenals in Europe.

Months ago, Gov. Evers used his partial veto authority as governor to alter legislation so that a school funding increase would continue for 400 years. The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided in June to take a case challenging that partial veto. See FREE WHITEWATER, Wisconsin Supreme Court Considers Gubernatorial Partial Veto. At the time, I wrote that

Evers’s expansion of the legislative funding until 2425 was unexpected (and I’d argue that expansion goes too far). And yet, and yet, his actions are a clever expression (and send-up) of political gamesmanship. I don’t know Evers’s childhood reading and viewing habits. Still, his partial veto suggests someone who enjoyed the irony and satire of Mad magazine or has a Bugs-Bunny-level cleverness.)

Well, the case went to oral argument before Wisconsin’s high court, and the justices are perplexed, as Scott Bauer reports:

Justices appeared to agree that limits were needed, but they grappled with where to draw the line.

When legal scholars and others look at what Wisconsin courts have allowed relative to partial vetoes, “they think it’s crazy because it is crazy,” said Justice Brian Hagedorn. “We allow governors to unilaterally create law that has not been proposed to them at all. It is a mess of this court’s making.”

The initial reaction from anyone would be that a 400-year veto is “extreme,” said Justice Rebecca Dallet, but the question is whether it’s within the governor’s authority to use the partial veto to extend the duration of dates.

….

Wisconsin’s partial veto power was created by a 1930 constitutional amendment, but it’s been weakened over the years, including in reaction to vetoes made by former governors, both Republicans and Democrats.

Voters adopted constitutional amendments in 1990 and 2008 that removed the ability to strike individual letters to make new words — the “Vanna White” veto — and the power to eliminate words and numbers in two or more sentences to create a new sentence — the “Frankenstein” veto. 

The lawsuit before the court on Wednesday contends that Evers’ partial veto is barred under the 1990 constitutional amendment prohibiting the “Vanna White” veto, named the co-host of the game show Wheel of Fortune who flips letters to reveal word phrases.

But Evers argued that the “Vanna White” veto ban applies only to striking individual letters to create new words, not vetoing digits to create new numbers.

Listen to this week’s oral argument in Jeffery A LeMieux v. Tony Evers via download @ https://devwww.wicourts.gov/scoa-media/2024AP000729_20241009.mp3

The court may decide to reject Evers’s approach, but prior changes to the partial veto came through a state constitutional amendment. Why, then, should the court decide now? Wisconsin voters can, through amendment, alter the partial veto in many ways, or eliminate it entirely.

There’s too much, too far, or too long, and there there’s what method to limit too much, too far, or too long.

The gubernatorial partial veto’s limits can and should be addressed by voters through a constitutional amendment.

Voters can (and should) be the ones to fix this kind of crazy.

Black hole shreds star and has moved on to another target:

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers have found that a black hole that shredded a star has moved onto a another star or stellar black hole

Courts, Crime, Daily Bread, Press, Walworth County

Daily Bread for 9.25.24: Oops, Someone Has the Wrong Date

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:46, and sunset is 6:45, for 11 hours, 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 42.0 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1804, the Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for allowing the expedition to move further upriver.

The Daily Jefferson County Union (‘no one does local like we do’) leads with this story yesterday afternoon and this morning:

And yet, and yet…the Walworth County Circuit Court lists the next appearance for defendant Chad Richards as 10.25.24:

It’s easy to see which is correct.

Sure enough, no one does local like that.

So lots of bird species seem to be migrating, but others are stickin’ around. Your Top Bird Migration Questions – Answered by an Expert:

Cornell Lab scientist and Bird Academy course instructor Dr. Kevin J. McGowan answers 6 common questions about bird migration, including Why do birds migrate? What prompts the start of migration? What’s the best time to migrate? How can we help birds on their way? and more. This video compiles highlights from an hourlong webinar from September 2023.

Conspiracy Theories, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.13.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court Takes Case on Future of Elections Commission Chairwoman

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:34, and sunset is 7:06, for 12h 32m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1956, the IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.

By Norsk Teknisk Museum – https://digitaltmuseum.org/011015239966/22-0-ibm-modell-305-ramac/media?slide=0, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124744659

Scott Bauer reports The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case on the future of the state’s elections leader:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the state’s top elections official could remain in her post after Republicans who controlled the state Senate sought to fire her last year.

….

Meagan Wolfe serves as the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency run by a bipartisan board that oversees elections in the key presidential battleground state. Republicans unhappy with her, especially after the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden, have attempted to oust her from her job.

Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and targeted by threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plot to rig the 2020 vote in favor of Biden. Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, and his win has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review, and multiple state and federal lawsuits.

….

Senate Republicans voted in September 2023 to fire Wolfe, despite objections from Democrats and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys, who said the Senate didn’t have the authority to vote at that time because Wolfe was a holdover in her position and had not been reappointed.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to challenge that vote, and in court filings, Republican legislative leaders changed course and claimed their vote to fire Wolfe was merely “symbolic” and had no legal effect. They also asked the judge to order the elections commission to appoint an administrator for the Senate to vote on.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock, in a January ruling, said Wolfe is legally serving as administrator of the elections commission as a holdover given that the commission deadlocked on whether to reappoint her. The Senate’s vote to remove her had no legal effect and the commission has no duty to appoint a new leader while Wolfe is serving as a holdover, Peacock ruled.

Republican leaders of the Legislature appealed and asked the state Supreme Court to take the case directly, skipping a state appeals court, which it agreed to do on Wednesday.

It’s astonishing how many repercussions and lawsuits Wisconsin has endured from election conspiracists.

Hikers caught in torrential downpour in the Grand Canyon:

Hikers touring the Grand Canyon in Arizona had to stop for shelter while heavy rainwater fell. The downpour caused flash floods in the area.

Courts, Law, Public Records, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.12.24: The Extremism of Election Conspiracy Theorists

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 6:32, and sunset is 7:08, for 12h 35m 19s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

This day in 490 BC is the conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon at which the Athenians and their Plataean allies defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.

One of two election law cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday reveals the extremism of election conspiracy theorists. Of that case (Wisconsin Voter Alliance v. Secord) and one other, Henry Redman reports in Wisconsin Supreme Court hears arguments in two election cases:

The first case involves a right-wing election conspiracy group, Wisconsin Voter Alliance, which has spent years casting doubt on the results of the 2020 election by alleging fraud in the state’s election system. The group, founded by conspiracy theorist Ron Heuer, has been filing records requests with counties across the state seeking documents showing the identities of people in Wisconsin who have been declared incompetent by a judge and had their right to vote taken away. 

….

The Wisconsin Voter Alliance has asked for the names and addresses of people who have been declared incompetent in guardianship cases so the group can compare that list with the voter rolls in the statewide voter registration database and find any people who have been voting despite having the right to do so taken away. County officials across the state have been denying these requests because state law requires that any court records in these cases “pertinent” to the declaration of incompetency be kept secret. 

Open access to public records is a right, and a significant one, but not unlimited. Here, a private party wants to conduct its own examination, but as Redman reports the argument from Walworth County’s counsel, there is already a lawful public process to investigate people declared incompetent from voting:

Samuel Hall, the attorney representing Walworth County, argued the law requires that these records be kept confidential. 

“Now the purpose behind the request and who the requesters are, as noble as they may be, are irrelevant under Wisconsin public records law,” Hall said. “The truth of the matter is that the District 2 Court of Appeals decision blasts open the door for the personal information of some of the most vulnerable people in our communities to be broadcast, not only to those with noble and good intentions, but to those who might do these folks harm or seek to defraud them.” 

He added that to the extent that there is an interest in conducting oversight of this government function — in which the court system is required to make local election clerks aware of decisions so the clerks can update voting records — there are plenty of avenues to do so without a private citizen or organization getting access to information state law deems confidential. 

“To the extent that there’s a desire to have oversight or a watchdog, per se, it doesn’t need to be done by a private individual or a private organization. Voting when ineligible to do so is a class I felony,” Hall said. “If there is a concern that that is going on, reporting it to law enforcement, reporting it to a local sheriff, could lead to a criminal investigation. We have a legislative process where even, you know, the Assembly or Senate could conduct inquiries, or the Wisconsin Elections Commission itself could conduct inquiries. None of that has happened here. This is a private organization seeking personal information of court documents that the Legislature has already deemed closed.” 

That’s spot on: a private party’s right to review incompetency records has already been decided by the Legislature. (That this private party would very much like to see these records doesn’t matter; it’s law not private feeling that should govern here.)

SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew steps out of capsule for first private spacewalk:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Harris-Walz, Law, Never Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.28.24: Live by Siphoning, Perish by Siphoning

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:16, and sunset is 7:34, for 13h 17m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 27.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM, and the Finance Committee meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad‘s new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam’s role in U.S. railroads.

Screenshot: RFK Jr. explains that whole dead bear cub incident
Screenshot: Stein impersonates a homegrown candidate in campaign video

Yesterday’s post looked at the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s dismissal of a complaint designed to keep the Green Party off the Wisconsin 2024 presidential ballot. See Green Party Worries Needlessly about Risks to Its Vote-Siphoning Operation in Wisconsin.

And look, and look: in an alternative history of our time, there might have been a legitimate Green Party candidate fighting for environmental issues, etc. That’s not Jill Stein. She is Putin’s catspaw: easily a fellow traveler, if not a fifth columnist. Her presence on the ballot serves only to siphon votes from the Democratic candidate. In this way, the right judicial decision (to keep her on the ballot) turns out to be the wrong political decision (Stein’s candidacy serves only those at home and abroad who would weaken American liberal democracy).

If, however, the adversaries of the American liberal democratic tradition won a small victory by keeping Stein on the ballot to pull left-learning voters, they suffered an equal defeat yesterday when the Wisconsin Elections Commission ruled to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Wisconsin ballot. MAGA-supporting RFK Jr. wanted to be off the Wisconsin ballot precisely because he knows (with what’s left of his brain) that he draws from MAGA-leaning voters.

Live by siphoning, perish by siphoning. These scheming candidates and their foreign backers are as risible as they are wrong.

Through all this, the right choice is stark and the imperative clear: Harris-Walz. Never Trump means never Trump.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.27.24: Green Party Worries Needlessly about Risks to Its Vote-Siphoning Operation in Wisconsin

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 94. Sunrise is 6:15, and sunset is 7:36, for 13h 23m 08s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 37.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1832, Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.

On this day in 1878,  Christopher Latham Sholes patents the typewriter:

The idea for this invention began at Kleinsteuber’s Machine Shop in Milwaukee in the late 1860s. A mechanical engineer by training, Sholes, along with associates Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, spent hours tinkering with the idea. They mounted the key of an old telegraph instrument on a base and tapped down on it to hit carbon & paper against a glass plate. This idea was simple, but in 1868 the mere idea that type striking against paper might produce an image was a novelty. Sholes proceeded to construct a machine to reproduce the entire alphabet. The prototype was sent to Washington as the required Patent Model. This original model still exists at the Smithsonian. Investor James Densmore provided the marketing impetus that eventually brought the machine to the Remington Arms Company. Although Remington mass-marketed his typewriter beginning in 1874, it was not an instant success. A few years later, improvements made by Remington engineers gave the machine its market appeal and sales skyrocketed. [Source: Wisconsin Lore and Legends, p.41]

Last week, advocates for the Green Party expressed alarm that the Wisconsin Supreme Court asked that political party to file briefs in a lawsuit from the Wisconsin Democrats aimed at keeping the Greens off the November ballot. Wisconsin’s high court gave the Greens a tight deadline, leading the party to contend it was being treated unfairly.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed the suit aimed at keeping the Greens off the ballot. The Greens misunderstood the purpose of the tight deadline to file briefs. Henry Redman reports that

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from the Democratic National Committee challenging Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s placement on the ballot in November. 

With just one day before the Wisconsin Elections Commission decides which candidates will be allowed on the ballot this fall, the Court moved quickly in the case, asking parties late last week to file briefs in response to the Democrats’ petition to the Court before the Green Party of Wisconsin even had a lawyer. 

The Democrats had previously filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) against the Green Party’s candidate for president, Jill Stein, alleging she should not be placed on the state’s presidential ballot because the Green Party of Wisconsin does not have official state officers who can serve as presidential electors.

The WEC denied the Democrats’ complaint on a technicality, prompting the party to bring the lawsuit to the Supreme Court. 

Earlier this year, the WEC voted to allow the Green Party onto the ballot because it got at least 1% of the vote in a statewide election in 2022. 

(Emphasis added.)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court set an accelerated briefing deadline not to burden the Greens but to dispose of the complaint against them before the Elections Commission meeting.

Admittedly, there’s something laughable about an established political party (Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has been running for president, while simping for Putin, for years) whose Wisconsin Party officials whine that

According to Michael J. White, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, his party had no legal representation in Wisconsin when he was notified of the court order.

“That just strikes me as a little bit unreasonable,” he told WPR on Thursday afternoon.

Pete Karas, the state Green Party’s elections chair, said they found a lawyer “around midnight” after “a zillion phone calls.” That lawyer is Milwaukee-area attorney Michael Dean.

The next morning, the party sent out a mass email to its followers asking for donations.

“Lawyers are expensive, and we need your help today to ensure we can pay for these much-needed legal fees,” the mailer said.

Funny that the Green Party didn’t have a Wisconsin lawyer beforehand. One would have expected a better level of preparation from a 2024 vote-siphoning operation.

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.24.24: A Slight Break in Wiconsin’s Judicial Gridlock

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:39, and sunset is 8:23, for 14h 43m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 86.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1935, the Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F (43 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

Wisconsin has had a federal court vacancy for over two years, after Sen. Ron Johnson withdrew his bipartisan support (with Sen. Tammy Baldwin) for a prior nominee, William Pocan (brother of U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan). That time having been lost, Johnson has now agreed to support a new nominee, Byron Conway:

Earlier this month, both Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin turned in what are known as “blue slips,” formalizing their support of President Joe Biden’s appointment of personal injury attorney Byron Conway to U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. That’s significant because two years ago, Johnson blocked Biden’s previous pick from the judgeship from advancing to a hearing.

Conway’s nomination is set to receive a hearing before the Senate’s Judiciary Committee in “coming weeks,” a spokesperson for the committee’s Democratic majority said Monday. The process will not be affected by Biden’s announcement on Sunday, in which he pulled out of the race for another presidential term, the spokesperson said.

Johnson’s office did not respond Monday to a request for comment.

If Conway gets an OK from the judiciary committee, his nomination will then advance to the full Senate, where he’ll need majority approval before he can become a federal judge.

That’s significant because two years ago, Johnson blocked Biden’s previous pick from the judgeship from advancing to a hearing.

Ron Johnson. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / (CC BY-SA)

There never should have been a delay, and Johnson’s claim he withdrew support from the prior nominee because of a lack of Green Bay ties (the judicial office for this judgeship is in Green Bay) is both trivial and false. It’s trivial because one correctly selects for the federal bench based on intellect, knowledge, and experience, not membership in local community groups. It’s false because Johnson’s blue-slip retraction was based not on Pocan’s abilities but on irrelevant, unrelated, or discriminatory considerations.

Judicial vacancies impede the timely administration of justice. The sooner the seat is filled, the better.

A hydrothermal explosion sent visitors running from the boardwalk as hot water and debris rained down in Yellowstone National Park:

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.19.24: Update on ‘From Judicial Leak to Docket Entries’

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:34 and sunset 8:27 for 14h 52m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1963, Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.

On July 3rd, FREE WHITEWATER published a post about the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to take two abortion cases (after news that the court might take at least one case had leaked). See From Judicial Leak to Docket Entries. The Evers Administration filed on 7.17 to intervene in one of these cases (Planned Parenthood).

Henry Redman reports:

Attorney General Josh Kaul, who filed the first case in 2022, said in a statement that the Wisconsin Department of Justice is looking to intervene in the Planned Parenthood case to “help establish that the Wisconsin Constitution protects access to safe and legal abortion and does not permit the state legislature to ban nearly all abortions. The government should not be able to control critical reproductive health decisions.”

The filing argues that the state plaintiffs in the Kaul case should be allowed to intervene because the questions asked “are so closely connected that how each case is litigated or decided could directly impact the other.” It says the Kaul plaintiffs agree with the Planned Parenthood plaintiffs and want the chance to “fully argue why the Wisconsin Constitution would prohibit” a near-total abortion ban.

A link to the filing to intervene appears below:

Planned Parenthood_Intervention BriefDownload

Swathes of southern Europe bake as temperatures soar: