WJI's Daily Reads for Feb. 14, 2022

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: State Supreme Court permitted ballot boxes for tomorrow's election but now says ban on boxes is OK for April. 

Writing for the dissenters, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley contended Friday's order could give voters and clerks whiplash as the rules on ballot boxes change. 

"Once again, a majority of this court makes it more difficult to vote," she wrote. "With apparent disregard for the confusion it is causing, the majority provides next to no notice to municipal clerks, changing procedures at the eleventh hour and applying different procedures from those that applied to the primary in the very same election cycle."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Families pay $5 million each year for calls with loved ones at the Milwaukee County Jail.

The Hill: U.S. Supreme Court rejects emergency appeal by New York City teachers seeking to block vaccine mandate.

The Atlantic: How the U.S. Supreme Court is nullifying constitutional rights using its shadow docket.

On Monday, the Court blocked a ruling—written by a panel of three federal judges, two of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump—that found that Alabama had violated the Voting Rights Act when it drew a congressional map with one majority-Black district out of seven rather than two, in a state where Black people make up more than a quarter of the population. Five of the justices disagreed with the lower court’s decision, but only Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained his rationale in an opinion joined by Samuel Alito, arguing that complying with the Fifteenth Amendment would just be too much work.

“Running elections statewide is extraordinarily complicated and difficult. Those elections require enormous advance preparations by state and local officials, and pose significant logistical challenges,” Kavanaugh wrote. “The District Court’s order would require heroic efforts by those state and local authorities in the next few weeks—and even heroic efforts likely would not be enough to avoid chaos and confusion.”

ProPublica: Report shows border patrol failures regarding death of 16-year-old detainee.

The report, obtained by ProPublica through a public records request, concludes that Border Patrol agents did not check on 16-year-old Carlos Hernandez Vasquez, who died of the flu after writhing on the floor of his cell in Weslaco, Texas. The report also found that the case reflected broader problems with care in a detainee system that at the time was overwhelmed with migrants, many of whom were ill. . . .

Agents noted in log books that they regularly checked on the boy after he was moved to another Border Patrol station that housed sick migrants. But video surveillance of his cell showed no sign of it, the report said.

WISC News (AP report): Bureau of Prisons worker pleads guilty to sexual abuse of women at federal women's prison in California.

All HipHop: Tattoo case against Cardi B set for trial in August.

The dispute broke out in 2017 when Kevin Michael Brophy filed his lawsuit, claiming Cardi stole his back tattoo and used it on the cover of her mixtape “Gangsta B#### Music Vol 1.”

According to Brophy, the lewd cover of the mixtape, which features Cardi swigging a 40 ounce of beer while being pleasured by a man in the backseat of an SUV, caused him humiliation and embarrassment.