Wisconsin Supreme Court – Page 24 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

The Wisconsin Supreme Court: It’s June Madness!

Post author:Richard M. Esenberg
Post published:June 17, 2010
Post category:Wisconsin Supreme Court

Yesterday, I had the privilege to join retired Judge David Deininger (a current member of the Government Accountability Board) and host Steven Walters (former chief of the Journal Sentinel’s Madison Bureau) on Legally Speaking, a production of Wisconsin Eye. We discussed the division on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and related issues, including recusal and the disciplinary proceeding involving Justice Gableman. You can watch it here.

We can expect to see a lot from the court in the coming weeks. It generally tries to wrap up its term by the end of June or the first part of July and generally will decide all cases argued during the term.

There are over forty cases that have been argued this term and have yet to be decided. While they are all important in their own way, some address major unresolved legal and policy questions, including the validity of the Wisconsin marriage amendment, Milwaukee’s sick pay ordinance, and the legislature’s $ 200 million dollar “raid” on the Patients Compensation Fund. It will address the Gableman case and a number of interesting criminal cases.

I expect to be busy.

Cross posted at Shark and Shepherd.

What’s Good for the Goose . . .

Post author:Daniel Suhr
Post published:June 11, 2010
Post category:Eastern District of Wisconsin Federal Civil Litigation Judges & Judicial Process Seventh Circuit Wisconsin Criminal Law & Process Wisconsin Supreme Court

Earlier this week, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued its decision in In Re Sherwin-Williams Co. The court upheld Judge Lynn Adelman’s decision not to recuse himself from a case pending before him in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Burton v. American Cyandamid, et al.

Sherwin-Williams is currently before Adelman as a defendant in a personal injury action involving lead paint, heard in diversity jurisdiction. S-W believed “his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” (the relevant legal standard) because he had written an article defending the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s controversial lead paint decision in Thomas v. Mallett, 2005 WI 129. (The article is Adelman & Fite, Exercising Judicial Power: A Response to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Critics, 91 Marq. L. Rev. 425 (2007)). In the article, Adelman defended the Court’s 04-05 term generally and praised Thomas particularly as a “positive development” which ensured that “the doors of the courthouse remain open.” Id. at 446.

Based on this characterization, S-W sought his recusal in this case.

What Do Offshore Wind Farms Have To Do With the Disintegration of Contract Law in Wisconsin?

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:April 1, 2010
Post category:Environmental Law Legal Scholarship Marquette Law School Wisconsin Law & Legal System Wisconsin Supreme Court

Answer: They are the subjects of this year’s top student comments in the Marquette Law Review. The winners of the Gold and Silver Quill Awards were announced at last week’s Law Review banquet. Marvin Bynum won the Gold for “Testing the Waters: Assessing Wisconsin’s Regulatory Climate for Offshore Wind Projects,” while Donald Stroud won the Silver for “Beyond Deception: Finding Prudential Boundaries between Breach of Contract and Deceptive Trade Practice Act Violations in Wisconsin.” Both papers are on SSRN; “Testing the Waters” is here, and “Beyond Deception” is here. The abstracts appear after the jump. Congratulations to Marvin and Tripp for this well-deserved recognition!