WJI's daily reads for July 19, 2021

Pew Charitable Trusts: Many people in jail can vote, but for many it isn't easy.

The Badger State does not permit a jail ID as an acceptable form of identification to vote. People in jail who want to register to vote or request an absentee ballot must ask corrections personnel to make a copy of their confiscated driver’s license or other state-issued ID.

“This hasn’t been at the forefront of the discussion around voter accessibility,” said Shauntay Nelson, the Wisconsin state director for All Voting is Local. “This is the responsibility of the county jails, as well as election officials, administrators and the legislature. We have to work collaboratively.”

Forbes: Clarence Thomas slams qualified immunity for college officials(!) in First Amendment case.

That case centered around Ashlyn Hoggard, a student at Arkansas State University, who was blocked from tabling outside the student union and promoting a new student organization in 2017 by university administrators. Instead, she could only engage with her fellow students in a specially designated (and oxymoronic) “Free Expression Area,” which required prior permission from the university.

Hoggard sued. The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the university’s unwritten tabling policy, which appeared to have “simply emerged from the bureaucratic aether” was “unreasonable and unconstitutional” when applied to Hoggard. But because the university officials “may reasonably have not understood this at the time,” Hoggard’s First Amendment rights were not "clearly established." That led the Eighth Circuit to upheld qualified immunity for the defendants, a decision the Supreme Court declined to overturn. 

BIG (newsletter): How big law attorneys help their clients break anti-trust laws.

UPI: U.S. Department of Justice to appeal judge's ruling that DACA is illegal.

Marijuana Moment: U.S. surgeon general calls for end to jailing of marijuana users.