WJI's Daily Reads for Aug. 24, 2022

Fox 6: Eight individuals sue Wisconsin over lack of appointed counsel.

(The plaintiffs) allege they've been waiting for weeks for representation. Antrell Thomas, one of the plaintiffs, alleged that he has been held in the La Crosse County Jail since last August, when he was confined on charges of drug possession, according to the jail’s website. He has yet to receive a court-appointed lawyer.

The lawsuit seeks judicial orders denoting the lawsuit as a class action and requiring the state to assign attorneys to indigent defendants within 14 days of their initial court appearance.

Spectrum News 1: Madison ordinance requiring bird-friendly glass survives legal challenge.

(The ordinance) requires buildings that are more than 10,000 square feet to incorporate a pattern, such as dots or lines, to prevent birds from colliding with the glass.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Republican legislators move to dismiss lawsuit challenging 1849 abortion ban.

CBS: Judge refuses to block ghost gun regulations.

Beginning August 24, commercial manufacturers of ghost gun assembly kits will be required to include serial numbers. Sellers will also need to be federally licensed, run background checks before selling a homemade gun kit and keep records of the purchases for as long as they are in business. The current rule allows sellers to purge records after 20 years. 

Slate: Leonard Leo's infrastructure and plans to reshape America through its judiciary and legislatures.

The $1.6 billion donation reported by the Times this week will supercharge Leo’s empire. On the tax form published this week by the Times, Leo had described the mission of his new Marble Freedom Trust as a project “to maintain and expand human freedom consistent with the values and ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.” The freedoms he is touting here have primarily served to make the wealthy more wealthy, and efforts at vote suppression more robust. People can debate whether or not the funds transferred to Leo were strictly legal or not, but that debate entirely misses the point: No one person should have this much say in the makeup of the judicial branch or in the theories these judges entertain and then enshrine in law. But the dark money and election restrictions ensure that it’s Leonard Leo’s world and we all just live in it. They should be seen for what they are: Mechanisms that will entrench that world for some time to come.

ABC: California Senate passes bill to limit use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases.

According to the bill, the legislation seeks to "ensure that the use of an accused person's creative expression will not be used to introduce stereotypes or activate bias against the defendant, nor as character or propensity evidence."

BBC: Former officer pleads guilty to falsifying arrest warrant that led to Breonna Taylor's death.