What the Cap Times Did Not Tell Us About the Wisconsin Supreme Court

One of my professional interests and charges is to follow the Wisconsin Supreme Court. About now, it’s a fascinating beat. Last month, the Capital Times covered the Court’s December 7 administrative conference. As Daniel Suhr pointed out on this blog, the article leaves a bit to be desired.

The article spends a great deal of time emphasizing the testiness that was on display during a public administrative conference held by the Court on December 7. That’s fine as far as it goes. The conference was certainly contentious and, at times, less than congenial. Part of that is due to the Court’s decision to hold its administrative conferences in public, thereby putting sausage making on display.

But it’s not just that. There have been many other indications of bad feeling on the Court, and that contention is not new. When the Chief Justice ran for reelection in 1999, a majority of the Court (crossing ideological divides) endorsed her opponent. That must have made for a few frosty decision conferences. The Court’s decisions and the concurrences and dissents of the individual justices have exhibited a certain heat for quite some time.

I do wish that the justices could find a way to dial down the heat that seems to characterize their deliberations. 

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Not Quite Children, Not Quite Adults

Monday’s New York Times reports that individual states and the federal government are currently working on new laws to address the problem of teenage runaways.  A couple of different problems with runaways have received public attention lately, and a fair amount of attention has been focused on teenage prostitution.  According to the Times, there is evidence that increasing numbers of runaway teens are turning to prostitution as the recession makes it difficult for them to obtain other, safer forms of employment.  Kids who are caught engaging in sex trafficking are often arrested and charged, but there is no evidence that this is having any positive effects on the larger problems that left the kids homeless and engaging in prostitution in the first place. 

The new initiatives discussed in the Times article, especially some policy guidelines being drafted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, are a big step in a positive direction. 

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Chamber of Commerce Challenges Oregon Workplace Captive Audience Legislation

CaptiveThis year, Oregon became the first state to enact so-called Worker Freedom legislation that prohibits employers from holding mandatory, captive audience meetings during union organizational campaigns.

The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2010, has now been challenged on NLRA preemption and First Amendment speech grounds by the Chamber of Commerce.  The case is Associated Oregon Industries and Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Brad Avakian and Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local No. 296 (complaint filed by Chamber).

I have written previously on why I believe the Oregon law is lawful and not subject to either a preemption or constitutional challenge in Toward the Viability of State-Based Legislation to Address Workplace Captive Audience Meetings in the United States. 

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