Alan M. Johnson was convicted in Walworth County of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of his brother-in-law. (Johnson’s late brother-in-law is identified in today’s high court opinion as ‘K.M.’ The events of the case took place in Whitewater, and the Walworth County trial was before Circuit Judge Kristine Drettwan.) Johnson appealed his conviction, and…
Law
Bigotry, Culture, Education, Law
Responsibility for Students, Patients, or Clients
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, Georgetown Law fired an adjunct law professor after publication of a Zoom call in which she deprecated the abilities of many of her Black law students. See Georgetown Law professor terminated after ‘reprehensible’ comments about Black students. Here’s the most objectionable part of her remarks from the video call: “I hate to say…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Regulatory Capture
Texas (But Not Only Texas): Regulatory Capture
by JOHN ADAMS •
Regulatory capture is a simple concept: it applies when regulatory agencies become dominated by the industries or interests they are by law required to regulate. These agencies begin to act to benefit particular incumbent firms or people in the industry they are supposed to be overseeing. The concept is also sometimes called agency capture or…
Federal Government, Immigration, Law, Migrants, Trump
Psaki Reminds on Federal Immigration Policy
by JOHN ADAMS •
Elections, Law, Legislation, Republicans, Voting Rights, Wisconsin, WISGOP
WISGOP Moves to Restrict Voting
by JOHN ADAMS •
Across America, Republicans are doing all they can to restrict voting access after Trump’s decisive loss in the presidential election. (Ceaseless lies won’t make up a 7-million-vote margin.) The WISGOP is no exception to this trend. Molly Beck and Patrick Marley report Republican lawmakers seek to overhaul voting in Wisconsin, including new rules for absentee…
City, Elections, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Law, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Counties Backing Fair Maps
by JOHN ADAMS •
The fight against gerrymandering will be a key political issue statewide (and in Whitewater) over 2021-2022. See Probable Wisconsin Political Issues for 2021. Both of the counties of which Whitewater is a part have supported resolutions in favor of fair maps. For more information, visit the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition to help end gerrymandering in…
Alt-Right, America, Authoritarianism, Congress, Herrenvolk, History, Law, Mendacity, Trump, Trumpism
Confederates, Copperheads, and Conservatives
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s an understatement to say that a democratic society that endures a violent mob seizing its capitol building is a society in distress. We find ourselves in the twenty-first century facing movements as malevolent and mendacious as the nineteenth century’s Confederates and Copperheads. Karen L. Cox writes What Trump Shares With the ‘Lost Cause’ of the…
Conspiracy Theories, Covidiocy, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Law, Never Trump, Presidential race 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin
Ron Johnson Attracts Attention
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Never Trump conservatives at the Lincoln Project aren’t going away: they have lingering Trumpism in their sights. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson – who accepts every conspiracy theory but rejects Wisconsin’s certified electoral votes for president – has caught their attention. .@RonJohnsonWI I wanted to let you know what we are talking about at @ProjectLincoln…
America, Elections, History, Law, Liberty, Never Trump, Presidential race 2020, Resistance, Trump, Victory
2020: ‘But Not Just That’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tim Miller – who is always worth reading, writes of 2020 as The Worst. But Not Just That. These paragraphs resonate: Most importantly, 2020 will always be the year that we joined together and toppled the greatest threat that our fragile union has faced in many decades. Turning out more people to vote against the president-strongman…
Crime, Law, Politics, Trump, Trumpism
Trump and 2024
by JOHN ADAMS •
2020 Presidential Election, Biden-Harris, Constitution, Elections, Law
Wisconsin Presidential Electors Cast Votes for Biden & Harris
by JOHN ADAMS •
Biden-Harris, Courts, Elections, Law, Presidential race 2020, Trump, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects, 4-3, Trump Campaign’s Petition to Overturn Wisconsin Election Result
by JOHN ADAMS •
Earlier this morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied the Trump Campaign’s petition to overturn, on various grounds, Joe Biden & Kamala Harris’s popular-vote victory in the state. (As a matter of law, the state’s high court affirmed a prior judgment and order against the Trump Campaign in the Circuit Court for Milwaukee County, Stephen A.…
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Law, Libertarians, Liberty, Never Trump, Trump, Trumpism
The Libertarian Remnant
by JOHN ADAMS •
Shikha Dalmia is a libertarian, and as a libertarian who is true to those beliefs, she is necessarily opposed to the authoritarianism of Trump and in Trumpism. Because the definition of libertarianism has been distorted beyond any true meaning by opportunistic or ignorant rightwing donors, she’s lost her job Reason magazine. Conservative donors pay the…
2020 Presidential Election, America, Courts, Documentary, Economy, Film, Law, Trump
Frontline: Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Supreme Court
by JOHN ADAMS •
With the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 presidential election, conservatives solidified a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court — and the chance to shape American life and policy for a generation. Behind it all was a powerful Republican from Kentucky: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for whom Barrett’s confirmation was…