New Marquette Lawyer Magazine Looks At Evolution of Important Issues

fall-2014-coverHow did we get where we are today? Consider that a central question underlying many of the stories in the Fall 2014 Marquette Lawyer magazine, being mailed this week and now available online.

As Wisconsin’s heated election for governor heads to a conclusion Nov. 4, the cover story of the new magazine provides both rich detail and thoughtful perspective on how Wisconsin, especially the Milwaukee area, became so politically polarized. Craig Gilbert, the Washington Bureau chief of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, spent much of the 2013-14 academic as Marquette Law School’s Sheldon B. Lubar Fellow for Public Policy Research. Gilbert worked closely with Charles Franklin, the Law School’s Professor of Law and Public Policy and director of the Marquette Law School Poll, in developing insightful data that show the changes. Gilbert calls southeastern Wisconsin “the most polarized part of a polarized state in a polarized nation.” Six experts provide perspective on what Gilbert’s findings mean in essays that accompany the piece. You may read it all by clicking here.

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Packers CEO Wants to Enhance “Fan Experience” at Lambeau

The Green Bay Packers have sold out every home game since the Fourteenth Century, right? Nothing to worry about when it comes to attracting fans and providing them a good experience, right?
Not right if you’re Mark Murphy. In an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Eckstein Hall on Tuesday, the president and CEO of the Packers described in detail the team’s efforts to improve the “fan experience” and to make Lambeau Field a year-round destination for events and experiences that extend well beyond game days.

Murphy told a capacity audience in the Appellate Courtroom that, as much as Lambeau is revered as a football shrine, until the large-scale renovation of the stadium in 2003, it was used for 10 games or so each year and not for much else. He called the decision to add a large atrium which includes the Packer Pro Shop and areas for eating and drinking “a brilliant decision” that opened the way to making Lambeau a year-round facility. “It completely changed the organization and particularly Lambeau Field,” Murphy said.

Murphy joined the team in 2008 and is overseeing several hundred million dollars in continuing expansion and improvements to Lambeau, including the addition of 7,000 seats, a new sound system, two HD video boards, and a large gate at the north end of the stadium.

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Snowden Attorney Praises Whistle Blowers and Journalists Who Unveil Secrets

Imagine what we would know and what we would not know without whistle blowers and journalists who have spread knowledge of actions by those within the federal government who wanted to keep secret improper and illegal things they were doing.

Ben Wizner suggested doing that Monday during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at Eckstein Hall. His partial list of things that might not have come to light included CIA secret prisons around the world, warrantless surveillance of American citizens, and the abuse of prisoners by American military personnel in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

And then there’s Edward Snowden, the National Security Administration contractor who released a large volume of records about secret surveillance of huge numbers of people, both in the United States and around the world. Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, is one of the main attorneys on Snowden’s defense team. Snowden has been living in asylum in Russia.

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