WJI's Daily Reads for May 6, 2022

WBAY: Corrections officer asks for National Guard assistance to address prison staffing shortages.

Now, a 23-year veteran of the DOC is warning Governor Tony Evers and lawmakers that backup cannot wait any longer. Through an open records request, Action 2 News obtained the email that employee sent Saturday, asking them to call in the National Guard, writing, “We immediately need the National Guard to be activated and start filling these vacant positions until Madison truly sees the horrifying outcome they have been watching develop since Act 10.”

WPR: A shortage of public defenders amid a 35,000-case backlog.

Wisconsin public defenders say creative solutions are needed to deal with a backlog of thousands of criminal cases in the state's courts.

Last month, Wisconsin State Public Defender Kelli Thompson told WisPolitics a shortage of public defenders means it will take years to get through a 35,000-case backlog. She said her agency, which had around 615 full-time equivalent positions in the 2019 fiscal year, is around 20 percent short of being fully staffed. 

Courthouse News Service: Judge holds that the lame-duck law giving Legislature control over the attorney general's settlement of civil lawsuits is unconstitutional.

(Dane County Circuit Judge Susan) Crawford considered the Legislature’s description of the provision as only giving lawmakers a “seat at the table” to be an understatement.

“It is more accurate to characterize [the statute] as granting absolute power to the Legislature, far greater than a ‘seat at the table’ alongside the prosecutor,” Crawford wrote.

Slate: Arizona's clearing of man for execution highlights the issues regarding application of the death penalty to those with mental illness.

The Hill: U.S. Department of Justice announces new Office of Environmental Justice.

Slate: The most extreme lines from Justice Alito's leaked opinion – and there are many.

Alito justifies overturning nearly 50 years of precedent because he says women don’t have any real reliance on Roe. . . .

Alito cites outdated science and questionable common law from the 17th and 18th centuries (including a 1732 journal called Gentleman’s Magazine) to justify abortion bans that would criminalize women for terminating their pregnancies. . . .

Alito frames himself as a champion of women, who can now decide these issues at the ballot box—without acknowledging those ballot boxes have been rigged by Supreme Court decisions eviscerating voting rights.