WJI's Daily Reads for June 13, 2022

Madison.com: Wisconsin Parole Commission chair resigns at governor's request

“In my time as Chair-designee, I have given my best effort to be fair, just, and understanding,” Tate said in his resignation letter. “Fair, in working to ensure that everyone who has a voice in the parole process is equally heard. Just, in adhering to the statutory and administrative guidelines of parole, and using evidence-based practices; not being driven by politics or public perception. And understanding that everyone has a unique perspective and a personal experience that matters.”

​Politico: Upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision is expected to overhaul regulatory authority.

The upcoming decision on the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate oversight offers the conservative justices an opportunity to undermine federal regulations on a host of issues, from drug pricing and financial regulations to net neutrality. Critics of the EPA have clamored for the high court to do just that, by declaring it unlawful for federal agencies to make “major” decisions without clear authorization from Congress.

Courthouse News Service: U.S. Supreme Court justices make bank with book deals.

New financial discourse reports show the justices of the Supreme Court earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2021 on lucrative book deals that do not count toward limits on extra income regulated by ethics rules.

The Los Angeles Times: Sentence disparities for Jan. 6 rioters.

(U.S. District Judge Tanya) Chutkan, a former assistant public defender who was nominated to the bench by President Obama, has consistently taken the hardest line against Jan. 6 defendants of any judge serving on Washington’s federal trial court, which is handling the more than 800 cases brought so far in the largest prosecution in Justice Department history. . . .

The Jan. 6 cases pose a unique challenge for judges in that even though the riot was unlike anything the country has seen before, hundreds of people were charged only with misdemeanors such as illegal entry that typically do not land first-time offenders behind bars.

CNN: Oklahoma attorney general seeks to set 25 executions.

Four days after a federal court ruled against death row inmates arguing Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol is cruel and unusual, the state's attorney general asked for more than two dozen executions to be scheduled.

Executions in Oklahoma are scheduled by the state Court of Criminal Appeals. The motion from Attorney General John O'Connor requests executions take place every four weeks, starting no earlier than late August in order to give the Department of Corrections time to prepare.

Daily Dot: Proposed New York legislation would ban police from using fake social media accounts to track people.

The legislation sponsors accelerated the introduction of the bill after the leak of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, “fearing that police will increasingly use fake accounts to target pregnant people seeking abortion care.”

“It’s bad enough when the courts repeal rights, but no one should be tricked into clicking away the Constitution,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn in the release. “Even if abortion is legal under New York law, pregnant people will still be prosecuted for seeking care when they travel from out of state. We can’t allow police to set up accounts for fake abortion clinics and health centers, tricking pregnant people into waiving their privacy.”

WAFB9: Orleans Parish sheriff pulls deputies from court-security posts, forcing court to go virtual.