WJI's Daily Reads for July 7, 2022

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court decision makes it harder to recover fees for public records violations.

In a case that started when the city of Waukesha tried to bring summer league baseball to Frame Park in 2017, a divided court found the city didn't violate the law by withholding a draft contract for two months after a citizens group requested it under the open records law.

More crucially, the court also held that if government turns over records voluntarily, after being sued but before a judge takes action, the requesters have not prevailed under the law and can no longer seek attorneys fees.

"Absent a judicially sanctioned change in the parties' legal relationship, attorney's fees are not recoverable under § 19.37(2)(a)," Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote for the majority.

Politico: Members of President Biden's commission on the Supreme Court resume calls for court expansion.

Former U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, who served on Biden’s commission, said in an interview that the court’s striking down of Roe v. Wade, a New York law that restricted open carry, and the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions vindicated her belief that more seats should be added to the nine-member body.
“It was a place of solidity and rational discourse. It really is not anymore,” Gertner said of the Supreme Court. “It really is a set of decisions that they did only because they can. And that is an exercise of pure power, not legal reasoning.”

NPR: Former White House attorney Pat Cipollone to appear before Jan. 6 committee tomorrow.

Reuters: Paul Clement starts new firm to continue gun manufacturers' fight against nuisance lawsuits.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation said Wednesday that it has hired Paul Clement and Erin Murphy to appeal a judge's rejection of its challenge to a New York law that allows the state and people affected by gun violence to sue gun manufacturers. . . .

(Clement) and Murphy departed after Kirkland (& Ellis), one of the largest corporate law firms in America, announced it would no longer represent clients in matters involving the U.S. Constitution's 2nd Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.

ProPublica: Federal authorities investigating Operation Lone Star, Texas governor's border initiative.

Above the Law: Oklahoma attorney disbarred after running law practice from jail.