Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lawsuit alleges three top Wisconsin Republicans aided insurrection.
MSNBC: Redistricting decision may portendr bad things to come. This pessimism is based on the fact that four of the nine justices on the Supreme Court signaled that they are at least open to the baseless theory argued by the Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a separate concurring opinion, and Justice Samuel Alito in a dissent joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch indicated that they might support this “independent state legislature” doctrine. At its basic level, the independent state legislature theory would allow state lawmakers, and only state lawmakers, to draw congressional district lines. It would deny state courts a role in protecting voting rights concerning federal elections. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: State Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Jill Karofsky, makes it easier to reject job applicants with criminal histories. In dissent, Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote wrote the majority guts the anti-discrimination policy of the Fair Employment Act. Instead of context-specific analysis, she wrote, the majority relies on generic character traits of domestic abuser and qualities of work places in general. Further, the dissent argues the majority used the wrong standard of review. The court, it said, is supposed to defer to the findings of the LIRC unless "no reasonable fact finder could reach the same conclusion." LIRC, Dallet said, gave no weight to Cree's expert, yet the majority seemed to rely on the expert's claims about domestic abusers in general. Marijuana Moment: Delaware cannabis legalization effort fails in House, despite winning majority vote. The Guardian: Opioid victims, families tee off on the Sackler family, whose Purdue Pharma profited mightily from the drugs. Vitaly Pinkusov lost his wife to an overdose when she was 32. “I stand here before you as a broken man … How do I feel about you? The closest feeling is … pure contempt,” he said, saying that they are “condemned to eternal infamy”. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Common Council considers seizing cars of traffic offenders. CNN: Judge rebukes special counsel for unnecessary,inflammatory info in routine court filing.
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The Guardian: Lawsuits over plastic pollution expected to increase after historic deal.
Marijuana Moment: Americans back cannabis banking reform. The survey, conducted by Morning Consult, posed two questions on marijuana banking. The first broadly asked respondents whether they support or oppose allowing cannabis businesses to “access traditional banking services, like a checking account or business loan, in states where cannabis is now legal.” Sixty-five said they favor that policy, with just 15 percent in opposition. The Hill: Judge questions attorney John Eastman's work for Trump. CNN: Biden administration appeals order to deploy unvaccinated Navy SEALs. NBC: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calls for review of broad Facebook immunity. Krista G. LaFave and J.C. Moore are running for the Wauwatosa Municipal Court seat being vacated by Richard J. Baker, who is not seeking re-election. Election Day is April 5. LaFave, an attorney at Warshafsky, Rotter, Tarnoff & Bloch, received her law degree from Tulane University Law School. Her resume is here. Moore, a Milwaukee County judicial court commissioner, received his law degree from Marquette University Law School. His resume is here. WJI asked each of the candidates to answer a series of questions. The answers are presented here as submitted. The questions asked are patterned after some of those on the job application Gov. Evers uses when he is considering judicial appointments.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County assistant district attorney won't prosecute members of Wisconsin Elections Commission, citing insufficient evidence.
"Claims have been made that residents who did not request a ballot voted because someone requested a ballot on their behalf and voted on their behalf. There has been no evidence submitted that any of the individuals who received ballots did not request them." CBS 58 (WDJT): During sentencing hearing Milwaukee County judge speaks out about violence, says Milwaukee has turned into a sewer. WisPolitics.com: Advocates voice opposition to eliminating Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center to gain Lincoln Hills replacement. “We believe that Milwaukeeans should not have to choose between bringing our incarcerated youth closer to home and helping our Milwaukee men reintegrate into their communities,” said Abby Kanyer, community engagement manager of the ACLU of Wisconsin said at the press conference. “Our criminal legal system fractures, separates and breaks up Milwaukee families. In bringing the youth at Lincoln Hills closer to home while preserving a site for crucial reentry services, we are bringing families closer together.” Wisconsin Public Radio: Assembly majority leader says Wisconsin will legalize marijuana at some point and that decertifying the 2020 election is impossible. Vox: U.S. Supreme Court leaves in place court orders on voting maps in North Carolina and Pennsylvania (for now). In both cases, Republican lawmakers asked the US Supreme Court to overturn these court-drawn maps by relying on the so-called “independent state legislature doctrine,” which claims that state lawmakers — and only state lawmakers — are allowed to determine how states conduct federal elections. The Atlantic: Originalists' attack on the right to counsel. The 2019 case Garza v. Idaho, which involved a defendant whose attorney did not file an appeal despite his request, because the defendant had earlier signed a waiver agreeing not to appeal, offers an illustration of this position. In that case, a majority found that the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. Three justices—Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito—dissented, with Gorsuch joining part of Thomas’s dissent suggesting that the 1963 case Gideon v. Wainwright, which guaranteed a right to counsel for those who could not afford to pay, should be overturned. “The Court has read the Constitution to require not only a right to counsel at taxpayers’ expense, but a right to effective counsel,” Thomas complained, adding that “the right to counsel is not an assurance of an error-free trial or even a reliable result … Our ever-growing right-to-counsel precedents directly conflict with the government’s legitimate interest in the finality of criminal judgments.” On the one hand, it is true that human fallibility means that a mistake might be made at trial that does not compromise the integrity of the entire process. But on the other hand, the idea that a “reliable result” in a criminal trial is less important than “the finality of criminal judgments” turns Thomas’s argument into a long-winded paraphrase of Stephen Colbert’s quip that “due process is just a process that you do.” By Gretchen Schuldt An abortion protester's comments to a clinic employee about “bad things happening to you and your family” and that “you’re lucky if you make it home safe” constituted harassment and went beyond protected free speech, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The District III appeals court panel upheld an injunction barring, until Sept. 9, 2024, Brian Aish from harassing nurse practitioner Nancy Kindschy and requiring him to avoid her residence or any premises she temporarily occupies, including the Blair Health Center. Kindschy worked at the clinic, which did not provide abortions. It provided Planned Parenthood family planning services. "Although Aish claims that he intended only to influence Kindschy to leave her employment, to shut down Planned Parenthood, and to proselytize, his comments and behavior were harassing to Kindschy, making his actions unprotected speech," Appellate Judge Gregory B. Gill wrote for the three-judge panel. He was joined in his opinion by Appellate Judges Lisa K. Stark and Thomas M. Hruz. "An individual’s ability to protest abortion, like any other subject, is not unlimited," Gill wrote in the decision upholding a ruling by Trempealeau County Circuit Judge Rian Radtke. Kindschy petitioned for the harassment injunction in March 2020, alleging that Aish's behavior made her fear for her safety. He had protested at clinics where Kindschy worked since 2014, and he grew confrontational in 2019. “You have time to repent," Aish told Kindschy one day that year, according to testimony, Gill said. Aish also told Kindschy that "You will be lucky if you don’t get killed by a drunk driver on your way home. Bad things are going to start happening to you and your family.” About a week later, Kindschy testified in circuit court, Aish approached her vehicle as she left the clinic and told her angrily that, “you have blood on your hands.” "Kindschy saw Aish receive a citation for trespassing, which Kindschy believed angered him even more," Gill wrote. "Kindschy was frightened of Aish’s aggressive and angry behavior." Aish also followed Kindschy to her car and told her that she would be "lucky" if she got home safely and that bad things were going to happen to her family. "A week later, Aish accused Kindschy of lying to the authorities about him and told her that she would be 'lucky' to make it home safely, which caused her 'great concern,' ” Gill said. Wisconsin Examiner: More on the effects of altered reports by the Waupaca Sheriff's Department.
“What the sheriff said and the detective captain said is that this practice of a reviewing detective changing police reports, altering police reports is common, that it happens all the time,” (defense attorney Kate) Drury says. “In our view, we said that is inappropriate. The reviewing detective doesn’t always have personal knowledge of what happened. The purpose is to review the report and refer that problematic report back to the author. They shouldn’t be allowed to correct the police report by adding facts so probable cause exists where it wouldn’t or delete exculpatory information in the report.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Republicans plan to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of redistricting case. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Federal lawsuit filed alleging Jefferson County Jail officials and staff liable for death of man in custody. CNN: U.S. Supreme Court reinstates Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence. Death Penalty Information Center: Poll finds bipartisan opposition to death penalty as currently administered. The poll, conducted by the Justice Research Group (JRG) November 3 to 5, 2021 and released February 17, 2022, found that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents by margins of more than 30 percentage points opposed the use of the death penalty against people with severe mental illness . . . brain damage, or intellectual impairments, and against veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. The poll found pluralities of each group opposed to seeking the death penalty against victims of severe abuse, and Americans nearly evenly split on the propriety of the death penalty for adolescent offenders between the ages of 18 and 21. The Olympian: Washington State legislature passes ban on high-capacity magazines. Senate Bill 5078 prohibits the manufacture, importation, distribution, selling, and offering for sale of “ammunition feeding devices” with the capacity to hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The bill will go into effect July 1, if signed by (Governor Jay) Inslee. Lowering the Bar: When picking an alias pick one that doesn't appear on an outstanding warrant. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court chooses Evers' redistricting maps.
Fox 11 News (WLUK): Waupaca Sheriff asks state to review his department after district attorney's disclosure that a crime report was improperly altered to delete exculpatory information. Appleton Post Crescent: More details on the report altered by Waupaca Sheriff's Department to delete information favorable to a defendant. CBS 58 (WDJT): State Legislature finance committee approves funding for new youth prison near Milwaukee. The Guardian: Examples of Black people receiving harsher sentences for unintentional voting errors than whites who committed fraud. A few years previously, (Pamela) Moses, who is Black, permanently lost the right to vote after committing a felony. But no one had actually removed Moses from the voter rolls or told her she couldn’t vote. And in 2019, when state officials began looking into her eligibility, a probation officer signed a certificate saying Moses had completed her sentence and was eligible to vote. So she applied to do so. Even though corrections officials conceded they made an error, Moses was indicted anyway. Moses was convicted by a jury in November. In late January, she was sentenced to six years and one day in prison. . . . about a month after Mason was sentenced, a white justice of the peace in the same county pleaded guilty to forging signatures to get on the ballot when he was running for office. He was sentenced to probation. “You have Ms Mason’s case of what at worst is an innocent mistake … on the other hand you have someone who intentionally – you can’t innocently forge signatures, and they received probation,” said (ACLU-Texas Attorney Thomas) Buser-Clancy. “It’s the same county, same DA, very different results, when you would expect it to go the opposite way.” SCOTUSblog: U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows federal officials to withhold information on torture at CIA sites. The dispute before the Supreme Court stems from Abu Zubaydah’s efforts to depose and seek documents from two former CIA contractors who Abu Zubaydah says supervised his interrogations. He wants to use the information in a criminal investigation in Poland, where prosecutors are investigating the abuse that occurred there. The U.S. government asserted that the information is protected by the state secrets privilege because, even though the location of the detention site has already been publicly disclosed, Abu Zubaydah’s request could compel former CIA contractors to confirm the location of the site – which would itself compromise national security. The Supreme Court agreed. Reuters: Sacklers agree to pay $5.5 billion to settle Purdue Pharma opioid claims. Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin Department of Corrections returns to in-person visitation.
"I know a lot of people really depend on the visits that they do get. It could be from a mom or dad, or like I said, if you have children, you really depend on and look forward to those times together," (Ramiah) Whiteside (associate director of Ex-incarcerated People Organizing) said. "To have it open back up and then kind of abruptly go back down, that's definitely a psychological, emotional whirlwind to say the least." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge finds that Rep. Robin Vos and former justice Michael Gableman violated the open records law. (Dane County Circuit Judge Frank) Remington said (Michael) Gableman had no reason to withhold the records the group sought and his Office of Special Counsel's actions violated a standard under state law triggering punitive damages. "(The office's) decision at the time of its denial of access was to send a three sentence, misspelled, summary rejection email. This is the sort of 'unconsidered and irrational' conduct deserving of punitive damages," Remington wrote, referring to the law's requirements. CBS 58: Marquette University poll shows increased Republican support for marijuana legalization. For the first time, a majority of Republicans (51%) surveyed said they support marijuana legalization, with 42% opposed. It's a 10-point shift in opinion from 2019 when 41% supported legalization, 56% opposed. Reason: Not much on promised criminal justice reform in President Biden's state of the union speech. The White House press office pushed out voluminous "fact sheets" throughout the day touting the Biden administration's successes in improving U.S. infrastructure, fighting gun crime, and its plans to curb inflation, but neither the White House nor Biden had much to say about the sweeping criminal justice platform that he ran on. Politico: Jan. 6 committee says former president Donald Trump broke the law. In a major release of its findings, filed in federal court late Wednesday, the committee suggested that its evidence supported findings that Trump himself violated multiple laws by attempting to prevent Congress from certifying his defeat. “The Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the committee wrote in a filing submitted in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California. Law & Crime: National Rifle Association survives New York Attorney General's claim to dissolve the organization, but case continues on other grounds. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen called the attorney general’s lawsuit “a grim story of greed, self-dealing, and lax financial oversight at the highest levels of the National Rifle Association,” if she could prove those claims. But Cohen found that the accusations did not merit the ultimate penalty. “Her allegations concern primarily private harm to the NRA and its members and donors, which if proven can be addressed by the targeted, less intrusive relief she seeks through other claims in her complaint,” Cohen wrote . . . . "Moreover, dissolving the NRA could impinge, at least indirectly, on the free speech and assembly rights of its millions of members. While that alone would not preclude statutory dissolution if circumstances otherwise clearly warranted it, the Court believes it is a relevant.” By Gretchen Schuldt A defense lawyer who failed to seek a child protective services report indicating that a child made a false accusation of sexual abuse was ineffective in representing a man later accused of assaulting the same girl, the state Court of Appeals has ruled. The lawyer, Gary Kryshak, was ineffective even though he testified that he was pursuing a different defense strategy, District IV Court of Appeals Judge Rachel A. Graham wrote for a three-judge appeals panel. "The CPS report contained information that was not only material but also could have significantly enhanced counsel’s chosen strategy," Graham wrote. She was joined in her opinion by Appellate Judges Brian W. Blanchard and Jennifer E. Nashold. The panel reversed Shane A. Stroik's conviction and ordered a new trial. Kryshak also erred when he did not object to a prosecutor's inference that Stroik's strong sex drive made it more likely that he assaulted the five-year-old girl, referred to in the decision only as "Amy." Kryshak, however, adequately addressed the insinuation in his closing argument, Graham said. Amy's parents were separated and going through a contentious divorce at the time of the alleged assault by Stroik in 2016, according to the decision. Amy lived largely with her father and stayed with her mother and Stroik, who were in a relationship, every other weekend. Amy told her father that Stroik had touched here "meme," meaning vagina, and her father reported it to the family social worker. The girl was interviewed by a forensic interviewer and repeated her allegation. "At one point during the interview, when asked to describe Stroik, Amy indicated that he was bald," Graham wrote. "However, it is undisputed that Stroik was not bald." Amy also said that her paternal grandfather also had repeatedly assaulted her. The grandfather died earlier that year. When police interviewed Stroik and Amy's mother, both said Amy had made an earlier allegation of sexual assault against a cousin, but nothing came of the child protective services (CPS) investigation. Kryshak, Graham said, "was aware that there had been a CPS investigation into Amy’s statements about her cousin’s conduct. However, trial counsel did not look further into the matter related to the cousin and did not attempt to introduce evidence at trial about Amy’s prior allegation against her cousin." During his opening statement, the prosecutor "made several comments about Stroik’s 'sex drive,' ” Graham said. For example, "the prosecutor asserted that Stroik had a 'very high sex drive' and therefore, according to the prosecutor, 'the presumption of course is that [he touched Amy] for a sexual purpose.' ” The prosecutor also questioned Amy's mother about how frequently she and Stroik had sex. "Do you remember saying that it was more sex than you ever had before?" he asked at one point. He also asked her about Stroik's interest in pornography, although none of it involved child pornography. "Trial counsel did not object to any of this questioning," Graham said. When Amy testified, she was unclear about whether Stroik assaulted her. "When the prosecutor initially asked Amy if she knew 'why we’re here today,' she responded, 'No,' ” Graham wrote. "Amy went on to testify that she remembered 'going to talk to a lady [that is, the forensic investigator] about something that happened with Shane [Stroik],' but that she did not remember anything happening between her and Stroik." She offered other contradictory testimony as well, but was clear in testimony that her paternal grandfather assaulted her and she remembered those things. A jury found Stroik guilty of first-degree sexual assault, and Portage County Circuit Judge Robert Shannon sentenced him to five years and eight months in prison and six years of extended supervision, according to the state's online court records system. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court hears argument on whether sex-trafficking law provides defense to homicide.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee City Attorney fires assistant city attorney who appeared on Russia Today TV. Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service: County delays providing free calls to those in custody. This move, proponents of the free calls say, is prolonging an undue burden for families already struggling financially. And the action has, they say, the earmarks of balancing the county budget on the backs of those least able to afford it. Wisconsin Examiner: Former Justice Michael Gableman presents report calling for elimination of Wisconsin Elections Commission and decertification of the 2020 election. In three and a half hours of conspiracy-laden testimony that included downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, recorded interviews with sleeping senior citizens and attacks on a number of election officials and organizations, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman presented the “second interim report” of his partisan review of the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections. . . . Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) asked Gableman about his connections to Republicans, his previous statements that he believes the election was stolen and if he would eventually release all the documents that have been created as he’s conducted his review, to which Gableman responded by accusing Subeck of impugning his honor. . . . “I want to be judged, not on the fact that [Former Republican Gov.] Tommy Thompson appointed me [as a district attorney], even though I was an independent at that time, not a Republican or Democrat. I want to be judged on the quality of my work. And in order to do that, I have to show people what I relied on. If there’s a disconnect, well, then I have no credibility. And then this whole exercise has been pointless. Do I look or sound to you like a man who wants to do a pointless or illegitimate exercise?” Slate: Fifth Circuit decision allows district judge to direct deployment of unvaccinated Navy SEALS. On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stunning decision transferring control over the Navy’s special operations forces from the commander-in-chief to a single federal judge in Texas. The 5th Circuit’s decision marks an astonishing infringement of President Joe Biden’s constitutional authority over the nation’s armed forces, directing him to follow the instructions of an unelected judge—rather than his own admirals—in deploying SEALs. High-ranking military personnel have testified under oath that this power grab constitutes a direct threat to the Navy’s operational abilities. As Russia invades Ukraine and declares a nuclear alert, Donald Trump’s judges are actively threatening America’s national security. Marijuana Moment: Coalition of rights groups push for House of Representatives vote on marijuana legalization. Intelligencer: An in-depth look at New York Attorney General Letitia James and her high-profile investigations of Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump. |
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