WJI's Daily Reads for July 6, 2022

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A third judge orders Michael Gableman to stop deleting records.

Governing: The independent state legislature case in SCOTUS's next term could end democracy.

“ISL (independent state legislature theory) is as made up as anything I know of out there in constitutional law,” says Vikram Amar, dean of the University of Illinois School of Law. “The Constitution uses the word ‘Congress’ 60 times, mostly not as an entity but part of a process. ‘Legislature’ is a shorthand for a lawmaking process, governed by the state constitution itself.”

Since the court agreed to hear the case on Friday, the theory has been described as “nutty” and “radical.” “This is quite literally where American democracy dies,” tweeted University of Denver political scientist Seth Masket.

The reason ISL critics are apoplectic is the potential the case has for allowing legislatures to override the will of the voters and pick the winners of presidential elections. “Under ISL, if a legislature announced today that it would pick electors, ISL would say that’s OK as long as they do it in advance,” Amar says.

Insider: We should expect deaths for pregnant cancer patients in states where doctors fear treatment will violate abortion laws.

Many cancer treatments will not affect the pregnancy. Surgery, for instance to remove tumors, is usually not a big risk, said Dr. Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society.
But chemotherapy and radiation therapy can, in some cases, affect a fetus and raise the risk of miscarriage, said Blank, who is also the director of Gynecologic Oncology for the Mount Sinai Health System. 
Some cancers, like cervical cancer or gestational trophoblastic disease, are not possible to treat without ending a pregnancy, she said.
Reuters: Federal judges may have conflict of interest issue regarding Berkshire holdings.

Politico: Some attorneys who filed baseless claims for Donald Trump have escaped discipline and their business is thriving.

In total, at least 16 lawyers who represented plaintiffs in five federal lawsuits promoting Trump’s baseless election fraud claims in the key battlegrounds of Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona remain in good standing or have no record of disciplinary action with their respective bar associations or licensing authorities, according to a POLITICO review.
Fourteen of them have since engaged in additional work in support of the election fraud conspiracies or conspiracists behind Trump’s attempt to remain in power despite losing the election to President Joe Biden. These include defending accused Jan. 6 rioters, consulting for partisan election “audits” or partaking in advocacy or legal cases sowing doubts about the integrity of the nation’s elections, POLITICO found.
Reuters: Republican states are targeting corporations with "anti-woke" laws.

Republican-led states have unleashed a policy push to punish Wall Street for taking stances on gun control, climate change, diversity and other social issues, in a warning for companies that have waded in to fractious social debates.
Abortion rights are poised to be the next frontier.
This year there are at least 44 bills or new laws in 17 conservative-led states penalizing such company policies, compared with roughly a dozen such measures in 2021, according to a Reuters analysis of state legislative agendas, public documents and statements.