Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 91. Sunrise is 6:20 and sunset is 7:27 for 13 hours 7 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning gibbous with 69.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1945, after years of war across Asia and the Pacific, the Empire of Japan signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in the presence of Allied representatives. The worst war in human history having ended, September 2 will always be a good day.
At Wisconsin Watch, Brittany Carloni offers a nice summary of major issues before the Wisconsin Supreme Court this fall (including whether the court will take up some of these issues):
The Wisconsin Supreme Court last November tapped two three-judge panels to hear the cases challenging the congressional maps as unconstitutional. One case, brought by a group of voters, argued the maps are a partisan gerrymander. The other case, brought by the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, argues the congressional maps are an anti-competitive gerrymander.
Both panels dismissed the challenges in separate rulings this spring, writing that only the high court could make decisions about the existing congressional maps. The voters and the business group appealed the decisions.
The issues before the justices in September for the voter-brought case include whether Wisconsin’s constitution allows partisan gerrymandering and, for the Wisconsin Business Leaders case, whether the three-judge panel was wrong in considering “anti-competitive” and partisan gerrymandering as the same argument.
The court may take a case challenging Act 10:
In late July, the 2nd District Court of Appeals reversed a 2024 Dane County Circuit Court ruling that restored collective bargaining rights for many public sector unions and employees. The unions in the case appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court less than three weeks later.
The issues in this case stem from whether portions of Act 10 — the 2011 law signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker that spurred massive protests at the Capitol — that separate public safety and general public employees violate equal protection guarantees in Wisconsin’s constitution.
It’s also possible, but not certain, that Wisconsin’s high court will also consider an appeal in a case directly involving voting hours in Whitewater:
Recently, the high court ordered an expedited process for briefings in an appeal filed by the Democratic National Committee about a 2024 case that sought answers to whether a circuit court has the authority to extend hours at a polling location past 8 p.m.
The Waukesha-based 2nd District Court of Appeals this summer reversed a Walworth County judge’s order from the 2024 presidential election that allowed polling locations at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus to stay open until 10:30 p.m. on Election Day. The 2nd District in July reversed the decision, arguing it is up to the Legislature to determine polling hours.
See Brittany Carloni, Elections, Act 10 top list of hot-button issues facing Wisconsin Supreme Court’s new liberal supermajority, Wisconsin Watch, August 31, 2026. I’d recommend her study in full, as it includes useful, knowldgeable commentary on the direction in which some of these issues may be headed.
Obvious point, however: there may be likelihoods here, but there is no certainty about which cases the court will take, what it may decide, or the reasoning on which its decisions will rest. It’s enough to know that we are living, so to speak, in interesting and momentous times.
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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.
Honest to goodness, bears weren’t bad enough? Now people are facing marmot attacks? Another quadruped species is out of control: