Marquette Law News

In Wisconsin and Michigan, incumbent Democratic governors overcame Republican challengers who were endorsed by Trump and repeated his denial of 2020’s outcome.

Sixty-three percent of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ voters but only 47% of Republican Tim Michels’ supporters said they backed their candidate enthusiastically. About as many Michels voters said they supported him with reservations. By contrast, in the race for U.S. Senate, 54% of voters for victorious Republican incumbent Ron Johnson were enthusiastic about him.

Michels was a weaker candidate — “he had some liabilities,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin. And in the Senate race, though Johnson won reelection over Democrat Mandela Barnes, the margin was narrower than his 2016 or 2010 victories.

“I think there’s a strong case here that the Democratic advantage in turnout boosted the governor’s race a little over two points from where it was four years ago, and also in the process tightened the Senate race to just that one point margin for Johnson,” Franklin said.

Judge Jennifer Dorow gained national attention for overseeing the Darrell Brooks trial. Now, she's considering a run for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That justices decide cases that impact Wisconsinite's daily lives, and will likely rule on whether the 1849 abortion ban is enforceable. "This spring’s supreme court race is shaping up to be highly consequential in the state of Wisconsin," said Ed Fallone, Marquette University Law School professor.

Matthew Mitten, professor at Marquette University Law School and executive director of the National Sports Law Institute, nodded to the various government shutdowns of sporting events in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as analogues for disrupting sports sponsorship contracts, but acknowledged that any specific claim from FIFA or Budweiser would depend on the specific wording of their contract.

"You would expect to see some kind of force majeure clause, and one of the contingencies that is certainly foreseeable is that if there is any government regulation that changes, or any action by the government...would be certainly a circumstance outside either party's control," Mitten told Law360.

Nearly a year since his hiring was announced at New Mexico State, head football coach Jerry Kill still has not signed an employment contract with the university, the school confirmed this week.

As of Friday, he hadn’t even signed the university’s initial offer letter dated Nov. 21, 2021 – a two-page document that spells out the basic financial terms of his job but also states that he is on probation for a year like other new employees there.

It’s an unusual situation. Kill, 61, is still coaching at one of the most difficult jobs in major college football. He also is still getting paid at a rate of $550,000 annually, an athletics department official said. But without a signed contract – or even a signed initial offer letter – Kill’s situation delves into a precarious realm that carries significant risk for both sides and sometimes has created awkward situations and headlines that have raised the eyebrows of fans. Once, it became a federal case at Kentucky after men’s basketball coach Billy Gillispie went two years without signing his contact before being fired in 2009.

“This is a strange one,” said Martin Greenberg, an attorney and sports law professor at Marquette who has represented coaches in contract negotiations but is not involved in the Kill case.

Derek Mosley, a judge of the Milwaukee Municipal Court for 20 years, has been named the director of Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, Marquette President Michael R. Lovell announced today. Mosley, who was appointed Municipal Court Judge in 2002 following a seven-year career as an assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County, will begin his new role on Jan. 9, 2023.