Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:02 and sunset is 5:16, for 12 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 74.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1964, The Beatles land in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport.
This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s Administrator, Meagan Wolfe, can remain in her post. The ruling was probable based on a prior court decision (under a different court majority) from 2022, as Scott Bauer reports:
A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that the swing state’s nonpartisan top elections official, who has been targeted for removal by Republican lawmakers over the 2020 presidential election, can remain in her post despite not being reappointed and confirmed by the state Senate.
Republicans who control the state Senate tried to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe in 2023, leading the commission to sue in an effort to keep Wolfe on the job.
The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling in Wolfe’s favor. The 7-0 ruling means that Wolfe can remain in her position and not face a confirmation vote by the Republican-controlled Senate.
The court said that no vacancy exists and, because of that, the elections commission “does not have a duty to appoint a new administrator to replace Wolfe simply because her term has ended.”
….
The court relied on the precedent set in its 2022 ruling that allowed Republican-appointee Fred Prehn to remain on the state Natural Resources Board after his term had ended. That ruling came when the court was controlled by conservatives. The court now has a 4-3 liberal majority.
I felt that Prehn should have resigned at the end of his term (and been removed for failing to resign), but the Prehn ruling in 2022 made today’s decision as certain as a legal outcome could be.
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset is 5:07, for 9 hours, 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On the issue of whether he should hear a challenge to Act 10, or instead recuse himself, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn is undoubtedly right:
Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn will not participate in a case challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin Act 10, the 2011 law restricting public employee collective bargaining rights.
In an order released Thursday afternoon, Hagedorn said he would recuse himself from a case being considered by the state Supreme Court that was filed in 2023 by the Abbotsford Education Association. The court is currently weighing whether to take the case directly before a state appeals court weighs in.
Hagedorn previously served as chief legal counsel for former Republican Gov. Scott Walker when Act 10 was drafted and defended in earlier court challenges.
Hagedorn said after reviewing legal filings in the case and the court’s ethics rules, he determined that recusal “is not optional when the law commands it.”
“The issues raised involve matters for which I provided legal counsel in both the initial crafting and later defense of Act 10, including in a case raising nearly identical claims under the federal constitution,” Hagedorn said.
And, there’s an update on yesterday’s post about partisanship on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Readers may have seen WISGOP complaints about Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford’s attendance at a Democratic event. The complaints would have more credibility if her conservative and WISGOP-backed opponent, Brad Schimel, hadn’t already justified partisan support of court candidates:
“It’s just become that way, that liberal judicial candidates will associate with the Democratic Party and conservative judicial candidates will end up affiliating with the Republican Party,” he said, adding that each campaign needs grassroots support. “The question isn’t whether you have a political affiliation. It’s whether you can set that aside when you get on the bench.”
Thursday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset is 5:05, for 9 hours, 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
I’m not sure what to make of a story that finds the Wisconsin Supreme Court race effectually partisan. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been partisan for many years. Still, someone feels the need to explain this to Wisconsin readers:
As with each one before them, Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court justice pledges to be “impartial” when ruling from the bench.
But the current race for that coveted seat has been — and will continue to be — anything but politically neutral.
Indeed, the two candidates are repeatedly pointing out the other’s political ties leading up to the April 1 general election, and the two major political parties have lined up behind their preferred candidate, animated by the prospect that voters could again flip the court’s ideological majority.
One hears that even a broken clock is right twice a day, and so it’s Brad Schimel (of all people) who explains the state of affairs accurately:
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Schimel said he didn’t see a retreat from the overt partisanship of state Supreme Court races coming any time soon.
“It’s just become that way, that liberal judicial candidates will associate with the Democratic Party and conservative judicial candidates will end up affiliating with the Republican Party,” he said, adding that each campaign needs grassroots support. “The question isn’t whether you have a political affiliation. It’s whether you can set that aside when you get on the bench.”
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 19. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset is 4:57, for 9 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 24.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1943, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca:
Key decisions included a commitment to demand Axis powers’ unconditional surrender; plans for an invasion of Sicily and Italy before the main invasion of France; an intensified strategic bombing campaign against Germany; and approval of a US Navy plan to advance on Japan through the central Pacific and the Philippines. The last item authorized the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific, which shortened the war.
The Nazi-adjacent Mr. Musk has weighed in on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race:
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Tesla CEO, has waded into Wisconsin’s high-profile state Supreme Court race that will determine if the court stays under liberal control or flips back to a conservative majority.
“Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!” Musk posted Thursday morning on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns.
While races for Wisconsin Supreme Court are technically nonpartisan, partisan groups and donors have already heavily flooded cash into the campaigns of Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate, and former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, the conservative in the race.
Much better to be, as I am, one of these Wisconsin millions. The Wisconsin Supreme Court race will be decided here, and nothing of Musk’s voice or money will change the outcome.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy & windy with a high of 34. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset is 4:43, for 9 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
But [Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate] Schimel suggested there are other perks to being a judge than having your own potty.
“You set your own hours,” Schimel said. “I set the hours. Certainly, I’ve got to get my cases done, but I can decide — you know what? — if I want to do golf on Thursday afternoon, I can do that.”
The same, Schimel said, is not true for lawyers, who have to show up in court when told to do so. He said he doesn’t misuse that power. And, he said, there are times he’s had to work “all day and into the evening.”
But that appears to be the exception.
“I’m home for dinner most nights now,” he said. “I shoot in two sporting clays leagues. Or I was until I made this announcement (to run for the Supreme Court). I was shooting in two shooting clays leagues a week. I was doing all this, playing band rehearsals.”
Friday in Whitewater will be snowy & cloudy with a high of 29. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset is 4:40, for 9 hours, 16 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 2 PM.
On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.
Yesterday, I posted on the statewide race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and mentioned local races that were contested. One Wisconsin election, however, is sure to attract attention far beyond the Badger State:
About $5 million has already been raised by two judges vying to be the next justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the candidate backed by Democrats, claiming she’s outraised former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel by $600,000.
While detailed reports aren’t due until Jan. 15, both candidates released fundraising totals Wednesday covering a period ending Dec. 31.
Schimel’s campaign said it raised $1.5 million between July 1 and Dec. 31, and a grand total of $2.2 million since he got into the race in November 2023.
….
Crawford’s campaign said she raised $2.8 million since entering the race in June 2024, seven months after Schimel. During the July to December reporting period, Crawford’s campaign said it raised more than $2.4 million from donors in 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and ended the period with $2.1 million in the bank.
There’s Wisconsin’s big contest for 2025, with only few other high-profile elections nationally (notably, gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia). Our Wisconsin Supreme Court election will receive attention, and money, from across America.
The 2023 election spending between Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly was well over $50 million, and it’s a comfortable guess that this race will top that figure.
Employers added 256,000 workers last month, surpassing economist expectations of 155,000 jobs added, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on Friday showed.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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:
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.