Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling is member of "constitutional sheriffs" movement. 
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The Constitutional Sheriffs was founded in 2011 by former Graham County, Arizona, Sheriff Richard Mack. The organization is similar to the Oath Keepers, which encourages members to refuse to enforce laws that they believe are unconstitutional. . . . 

In bold letters on the Constitutional Sheriffs website, the mission statement reads: "The vertical separation of powers in the Constitution makes it clear that the power of the sheriff even supersedes the powers of the President."

Wisconsin Public Radio: Staffing shortages and safety concerns cause closure of part of Dane County Jail.

Sheriff Kalvin Barrett announced the department would be closing the east section of the 7th floor of the City-County Building in Madison. It’s the oldest part of the county’s jail facilities, dating back to the 1950s.

"A lack of safe and humane jail space, along with ongoing staffing shortages, has brought us to the difficult decision to place some of our jail residents in other counties. I will continue to advocate for a facility to be built in Dane County which reflects our community values," said Barrett in a press release.

NBC: U.S. Department of Justice sues to block Idaho abortion ban, claiming violation of supremacy clause.

NBC: Federal judge rejects Donald Trump's claim of absolute immunity from claims relating to Jan. 6.

The lawsuits, brought on behalf of four U.S. Capitol Police officers, seek to hold Trump liable for emotional and physical injuries they sustained when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and disrupted the electoral vote count.

Brennan Center for Justice: Pres. Joe Biden introduces $15 billion grant program called Accelerating Justice System Reform. . . 

Rather than reflex­ively lock­ing up Amer­ic­ans with substance addic­tion, who pose virtu­ally no public threat, the grants would divert them into mandat­ory treat­ment and harm-reduc­tion programs. Grants would also fund altern­ate respon­der programs, which send trained coun­selors to deal with mental health crises, either along­side or instead of armed police officers. These solu­tions are proven to reduce viol­ent inter­ac­tions with police, who will also bene­fit from focus­ing on true public safety calls. The grant program addresses the stub­born prob­lem of recidiv­ism, provid­ing money for job train­ing and hous­ing to smooth the trans­ition from prison back into soci­ety. 

Reuters: and at the same time calls for more police funding.

But the centerpiece of Biden’s Safer America plan is the fund the police measure: a request for nearly $13 billion to hire 100,000 police officers around the country over the next five years.

WTTW: Confirmed Monkeypox case at Cook County Jail.

Amanda Klonsky, research and policy fellow at the COVID Behind Bars Data Project at University of California Los Angeles Law School, said after watching how jails and prisons have handled COVID, it is a cause of concern for how monkeypox will be controlled.

APG Wisconsin: Secretary of State sends out documents, avoiding legal action.

(Doug) La Follette’s office officially received the resolution in March, but he hadn’t sent out the documents because, he said, Republicans had stripped away his office’s resources to the point where it didn’t have enough money or staff to send them. Between February and June, (Sen. Kathleen) Bernier’s office sent La Follette several reminders to send the documents. The situation culminated in Bernier’s threat in early July to bring legal action if he didn’t send them out by Monday.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin taxpayers owe another $163,000 in attorney's fees for investigator Michael Gableman's court battles.

Wisconsin Examiner: Milwaukee County Board approves two advisory referendums for November.

ABA Journal: Erwin Chemerinsky on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Indian-law decision.

The Guardian: Warnings from the U.S. Supreme Court's dissenters.

The dissents went beyond polite disagreements over jurisprudence. They amounted to the sounding of an alarm, alerting the nation that equal rights, constitutional government, and even what it is to be an American, are all under threat.

ABC: Group of major businesses files U.S. Supreme Court brief supporting consideration of race in university admissions.

More than 80 major American companies that employ tens of thousands of U.S. workers are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the use of race as a factor in college admissions, calling affirmative action critical to building diverse workforces and, in turn, growing profits.

The businesses -- some of the most high-profile and successful in the U.S. economy -- outlined their position in legal briefs filed Monday ahead of oral arguments this fall in a pair of cases expected to determine the future of the race-based policy.

The Hill: Chemical-manufacturer trade group sues Environmental Protection Agency over nonbinding advisories for certain chemicals.

In the complaint, announced Saturday, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) said new EPA advisories governing two forms of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contravene the agency’s own scientific integrity practices. 

The majority opinion concludes that the Wisconsin Elections Commission's (WEC) documents (hereinafter memos) are invalid because ballot drop boxes are not legal in Wisconsin and because absentee ballots must be personally delivered by the voter to the municipal clerk at the clerk's office. I agree, and join the majority opinion. I write further to explain that, under Wisconsin statutes, it is the elector who shall mail the absentee ballot to the municipal clerk. Accordingly, I respectfully concur. 

                                               ***


The circuit court decided that the elector was required to personally mail his or her own completed ballot to the clerk's office. Affirming the circuit court's decision is expressed in several briefs (sic), as is the need for uniform guidance. The WEC has issued memos that encourage drop boxes over mail-in ballot returns, and municipal clerks and election officials have acted on those memos. Teigen is a Wisconsin voter who is affected by the WEC's memos. Because the controversy is justiciable, I proceed to the merits of Teigen's statutory interpretation claim with regard to mailing absentee ballots, and conclude that the memos encourage drop boxes over mailing completed ballots and are inconsistent with Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1. Therefore, they are contrary to law. 

                                                                                ***

The statute provides in regard to mailing that absentee ballots "shall be mailed by the elector . . . to the municipal clerk." Electors are statutorily defined as "[e]very U.S. citizen age 18 or older who has resided in an election district or ward for 28 consecutive days before any election where the citizen offers to vote[.]"  Accordingly, when the statute says "the elector[,]" it means, the voter. 

The plain statutory text, provides that if a ballot is returned by mail, it is the "elector" who does the mailing. The legislature could have said "may be mailed by the elector" if it were not mandatory that the elector do the mailing. ...
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                                                                                ***

That agents are not permitted by the terms of Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1 to mail absentee ballots is further supported by comparing the language in that statute with other statutes in which the legislature has explicitly allowed an agent or non-elector to participate in the absentee voting process. Those statutes, in keeping with the policy in Wis. Stat. § 6.84(1), have formalistic, regulated conditions attached. 

​For example, when a voter is a member of a sequestered jury, the legislature has provided very detailed instructions about voting and returning the ballot where a non-voter participates. ...

Another example of the legislature's recognition of agents involved in voting or ballot return is found in Wis. Stat. § 6.86(3)(a) for hospitalized electors. ...

Wisconsin Stat. § 6.87(5) also permits the use of an agent when the elector is disabled. ... Once again, when the legislature decided that use of an agent in voting was permissible, it specified the circumstances under which an agent could be employed and defined criteria for performing as an agent in regard to absentee ballots. 

Accordingly, because the text and context of § 6.87(4)(b)1. instruct me to do so, I conclude that no one but the elector may mail an absentee ballot unless the elector and his or her designated agent fit within a different statutory circumstance that explicitly permits it.

This court's binding precedent allows WEC – a creature of the legislature authorized only to implement Wisconsin's election laws – to make law by executive fiat, thereby granting it a potent "Badge[] of Domination[.]" In Trump v. Biden, a majority of this court gave WEC's "advice" the force of law. It declared this "advice" is "the rulebook" for elections – never mind what the statutes enacted by the legislature say. ...

Even properly promulgated administrative rules do not have this kind of weight; in the hierarchy of laws, rules fall beneath statutes (if rules may even be called law). I would overrule Trump, but it remains binding precedent under which the WEC memos have the force of law. Because a majority of this court accords them this effect, they must be rules. Because they were not promulgated according to statutorily prescribed procedures, they are invalid for this additional reason. ...

This court's decision in Trump gave WEC the power to materially alter how elections in this state are conducted – without a single procedural check. Trump should be overruled, but if the court continues to hold the memos need not be promulgated as administrative rules, they should at least be subject to the statutory procedures we struck down in SEIU (Service Employees International Union, Local 1 v. Vos). As the law stands, WEC's staff have absolute prerogative power. The constitution does not permit such corruption of the carefully calibrated powers among the branches of government.

In that case, Grassl Bradley writes, SCOW denied the legislature a role in previewing and clearing guidance documents issued by the administration.

                                                                                ***

​Although the memos should not have the force of law, the majority erroneously concluded otherwise in Trump. In that case, Donald Trump, the incumbent President, and his campaign appealed the results of a recount in two Wisconsin counties. The ballots President Trump sought to strike fell into four categories; two are most relevant in this case. First, he argued "that a form used for in-person absentee voting [wa]s not a 'written application' and therefore all in-person absentee ballots should be struck." Second, President Trump argued "that municipal officials improperly added witness information on absentee ballot certifications, and that these ballots [wer]e therefore invalid."

As the majority acknowledged, "Wisconsin law provides that a 'written application' is required before a voter can receive an absentee ballot, and that any absentee ballot issued without an application cannot be counted." A majority of this court refused to consider whether the form utilized for in-person absentee voting, EL-122, constituted a written application. It noted, "both counties did use an application form created, approved, and disseminated by the chief Wisconsin elections agency." The majority emphasized "local election officials used form EL-122 in reliance on longstanding guidance from WEC." Therefore, it concluded, "[p]enalizing the voters election officials serve and the other candidates who relied on this longstanding guidance is beyond unfair." "To strike ballots cast in reliance on the guidance now, and to do so in only two counties, would violate every notion of equity that undergirds our electoral system." In Trump, a majority of this court allowed its notions of "equity" and "unfair[ness]" to trump the law. 

Invoking the same rationalizations, the majority declined to examine whether election officials violated a statute by adding missing witness information to absentee ballot certifications. Wisconsin Stat. § 6.87(6d) provides, "[i]f a certificate is missing the address of a witness, the ballot may not be counted." The majority defied this clear textual command because it was concerned that "election officials followed guidance that WEC created, approved, and disseminated to counties in October 2016." It continued, "the election officials relied on this statewide advice and had no reason to question it."

Overall, the majority compared voting – the foundation of free government – to a football game: "[E]lection officials in Dane and Milwaukee Counties followed the advice of WEC where given. . . . Our laws allow the challenge flag to be thrown regarding various aspects of election administration. The challenges raised by the Campaign in this case, however, come long after the last play or even the last game; the Campaign is challenging the rulebook adopted before the season began. Election claims of this type must be brought expeditiously. The Campaign waited until after the election to raise selective challenges that could have been raised long before the election. . . . The Campaign is not entitled to relief, and therefore does not succeed in its effort to strike votes and alter the certified winner of the 2020 presidential election." (Emphasis added by Grassl Bradley.)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: No criminal charges will be filed related to four Milwaukee County Jail deaths.

All four deaths were investigated by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department and reviewed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. But only one incident was the subject of an internal investigation for potential rule violations by staff, and it did not launch until almost a year afterward.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: State Department of Justice now investigating fraudulent requests for absentee ballots.

The probe comes a day after Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling revealed he was aware of the plot but blamed state elections officials for the violations instead of arresting the offenders who had confessed to the crimes. 

Schmaling thanked one of the offenders for committing voter fraud instead of arresting him for his part in the effort, the sheriff's office also acknowledged Friday. 

WisPolitics.com: Gov. Tony Evers appoints new Adams County district attorney.

Slate: Thoughts on Justice Samuel Alito's (not funny) jokes at conference in Rome.

But to focus on Alito trolling American women, reproductive justice advocates, his liberal colleagues on the bench, and his international critics is to take his feeble bait. Alito is quite transparent about the fact that he delights in disapproval. He invites it! He welcomes it! His “comedy” is actually just a distraction from his gleeful effort to decimate whatever remaining legitimacy the Supreme Court still possesses in the eyes of the secular, liberal world order. Focus on that fact and there is really nothing hilarious to report from Rome at all.

LawSites: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, now in bobblehead form.

Associated Press: Federal judge in Mississippi takes control of jail away from county.

“After ample time and opportunity, regretfully, it is clear that the county is incapable, or unwilling, to handle its affairs,” the judge wrote. “Additional intervention is required. It is time to appoint a receiver.”

Reuters: Federal judge in South Carolina reprimanded for financial deal with former employer.

A U.S. district judge in South Carolina is being reprimanded for signing a contract with Charleston County, where he long served as county attorney prior to his judicial appointment, that guaranteed him $216,000 plus a fee for any opioid litigation settlements it won after he joined the federal bench.

 The White House: Pres.  Joe Biden announces eight more judicial nominees.

NBC News: Staff shortages and poor training are impeding releases under First Step Act.

"It's not going at all," Joe Rojas, the literacy coordinator at the Coleman Federal Corrections Complex in Florida, said of the First Step Act's implementation. . . . 

Rojas said employees like him who should be operating programs that can help inmates earn time credits aren't able to do so because they're being diverted to other correctional officer-type duties during the staffing shortage — a practice known as augmentation.
"Most of us are augmented," Rojas said. "There's no programming. If there's no programming, you can't do the First Step Act."