Don’t Be Afraid to Go to Law School, Minority Students Told

Lovell Johnson recalls a guy he looked up to in high school, a guy he thought could really succeed in life. Several years later, he ran into the guy. The guy was driving a cab. Nothing wrong with driving a cab, Johnson said as he counted the anecdote. But the guy said to him he could have gone to law school and made more of himself. And he didn’t.

Johnson decided he didn’t want to be like that guy. That guy was afraid to apply to law school; he was afraid to fail. So was Johnson. But Johnson overcame that, took the plunge, became a lawyer, and has been a well-known and successful Milwaukee County assistant district attorney for years.

“Don’t be afraid,” Johnson told about 150 Milwaukee high school students Thursday at a Youth Law Day conference at Eckstein Hall. “Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it.”

That was one of the strong underlying themes as the students from a half dozen schools got a dose of knowledge about what it’s like to be a lawyer and a lot of encouragement to pursue that possibility.

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NAACP Leader: Photo ID Lawsuit Carries on 140 Years of Voting Rights Struggles

With its challenge to Wisconsin’s voter ID law, the NAACP is carrying on a struggle for voting rights that dates back to the post-Civil War era, James Hall, president of the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP, told the Law School’s Mike Gousha and an audience of more than 100 during an “On the Issues” session last week.

Hall, president of the organization since January 2011, emphasized the importance of voting and the long history in America of disenfranchising minorities and low income people by use of rules about voting. “There is so much repeating history,” he said.

The NAACP suit against the law, passed by the Wisconsin legislature in 2011 and requiring people to present an acceptable form of photo identification at the polls, led to a Dane County judge putting a halt to enforcement of the law through a temporary injunction a week ago. More legal action in that suit and other challenges to the law is expected in advance of the statewide election on April 3.

Hall, a practicing lawyer whose NAACP position is unpaid, said there were fewer than 20 prosecutions for voter fraud in Wisconsin in recent years. “Why, all of a sudden, this move to require a photo ID?” Hall said. “Certain types of people don’t have that.” Many of them are African American, he said. “In fact, it is a disenfranchisement law.”

The law was supported generally by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. Supporters said it was a sensible way to reduce chances of voter fraud, while opponents said its practical effect would be to put up barriers to voting for many low income people who don’t have drivers licenses.

Hall told Gousha that the civil rights organization, founded in 1909, remains very relevant. “across the country and particularly here in Milwaukee.” He said the city has some of the largest disparities in the country between African Americans and whites when it comes to income, employment, incarceration, and educational achievement.

Milwaukee and its leaders have not responded with the intensity that is needed to deal with the problems facing many black people in Milwaukee, Hall said. He said, “No, there is not the sense of urgency we would like.” He said the NAACP wants to work together with people from throughout the Milwaukee area in solving problems. “It is in our enlightened self-interest to address these disparities,” he said.

The Eckstein Hall session may be viewed by clicking here.

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Falk: Walker’s Values Are Not Wisconsin’s Values

The almost-certain upcoming recall election for governor will be a chance for Wisconsinites to re-assert what their values are when it comes to government, Democratic candidate Kathleen Falk said Wednesday at Marquette University Law School.

That, in her view, means the election will lead to the defeat of Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican who “has so torn this state apart and exercised such an extreme far right agenda.” The values that underlie Walker’s actions since he became “aren’t our values,” Falk told Mike Gousha during an “On the Issues” session at Eckstein Hall. The event can be viewed by clicking here.

The recall election could be coming quickly, depending on how soon the state’s Government Accountability Board acts, and the Democratic field has not yet fully taken shape. But Falk has drawn the most support so far of those Democrats who say they intend to run.

The most highly publicized part of Falk’s campaign has been her pledge to veto any state budget bill that does not restore the collective bargaining powers of public employee unions that were taken away last year in action spurred by Walker. Her pledge earned her endorsements from major unions but criticism on the editorial pages of some state newspapers.

Falk told Gousha and the audience that it wouldn’t be effective to introduce a bill to reverse last year’s action that stripped public unions of almost their powers. Calling a special session of the Legislature wouldn’t work either. Republicans are very likely to remain in control of at least the Assembly and they would block any action by those routes.

That makes taking a firm stand to veto the budget unless it restores union powers the only realistic path she could take as governor, she said.

“The only bill that has to pass every two years – there is only one – is the budget bill,” Falk said. “That is why Gov. Walker eliminated collective bargaining by the budget bill. That’s how you have to restore it. And if you are not willing to go to the mat and say truthfully how you will do it . . . then you are not honoring the million people who signed that petition (to recall Walker) and it isn’t being open and honest. I thought campaigns were about telling people what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.”

Gousha asked her whether such a stand could be bring deadlock over the budget. “Those Assembly Republicans will see that the vision they had has been rejected by Wisconsin citizens, and I believe they will be in a more compromising mood, and that is what a budget bill is about,” Falk said.

Falk said she was successful as Dane County executive in running a government that was frugal with money and willing to change as financial circumstances changed. She said she worked well with people of all political views and was able to get unions representing Dane County workers to make concessions by convincing of them of the need for “shared sacrifice.”

She emphasized her personal story, including her childhood living in Milwaukee and Waukesha County, and referred to herself several times as “the granddaughter of a bus driver from Milwaukee.”

Gousha said at the end of the conversation that the Law School policy is not to take political sides and major candidates for major offices from both parties have been invited to “On the Issues” sessions. He said Walker has had an open invitation but has not accepted the offer since taking office 14 months ago.

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