My Deployment as a Military Lawyer

First, I would like to thank Marquette University Law School for the privilege of serving as the Alumni Blogger of the Month. Second, I would ask that readers of my posts please note that my submissions are my personal thoughts and opinions (unless otherwise indicated) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Wisconsin National Guard or the U.S. Armed Forces.

I will now begin the more substantive portion of my post.

In September 2011, I received mobilization orders to deploy as a member of the 157th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (MEB). The MEB is located in Milwaukee. After approximately two months of training at Camp Atterbury, Indiana and Hohenfels, Germany, the MEB embarked on a NATO Peace Keeping mission serving as KFOR (Kosovo Force) 15. More specifically, the MEB served as the command element of Multi-National Battle Group-East.

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An Analysis of the 7th Circuit’s Wisconsin Act 10 Anti-Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law Decision

On Friday last week, the 7th Circuit in Wisconsin Education Association Council vs. Walker (7th Cir. Jan, 18, 2013), affirmed in part and reversed in part the Western District of Wisconsin’s decision in the same case.

The case involves the now-infamous Wisconsin Act 10, which came to international prominence in February 2011 when Wisconsin Governer Scott Walker, under the pretense of a budget crisis, sought to attack public unions by passing legislation which would deny collective bargaining rights to most public sector employees in the state.

That only “most” public sector workers in Wisconsin were covered by Act 10 – most general public sector employees were, but most public safety workers were not – became the basis of the federal constitutional challenges under the First Amendment free speech clause and the equal protection clause in this case.

The Western District of Wisconsin held that Act 10’s distinctions between different types of employees passed constitutional muster as far as the general anti-collective bargaining measure because it met the low-threshold rational basis review standard (there was a legitimate reason for such distinctions). On the other hand, the District Court struck down the anti-dues checkoff and punitive recertification provisions of the law as being without any legitimate basis.

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Bond’s Back: SCOTUS to Take Another Look at Case on Federalism and Criminal Law

The recent suicide of Aaron Swartz has provoked a great deal of public discussion of what many consider to be overreaching by federal prosecutors in his case.  In the view of some critics, Swartz’s theft of academic articles from JSTOR would have been more properly handled as a minor property offense in state court.  Instead, Swartz found himself in federal court facing a possible 35 years in prison and a set of charges invoking a variety of obscure federal criminal statutes.

Whatever the merits of the criticisms, they have served to draw public attention to the extraordinary power exercised by federal prosecutors and the uncertain line between what is most appropriately handled in state court and what is most appropriately handled in federal.

Although the Swartz litigation is now presumably over, another case that has provoked similar charges of prosecutorial overreaching is now on its way to the Supreme Court . . . for a second time.  

Continue ReadingBond’s Back: SCOTUS to Take Another Look at Case on Federalism and Criminal Law