Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday may have blocked Wisconsin’s voter identification law, but an election reform expert is calling the decision purely procedural and expects the requirement to be in place at some point in the future. The high court didn’t give a reason for its decision in a brief order overruling the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, but three of the nine justices who dissented said there is a “colorable basis” for the court’s conclusion due to the proximity of the upcoming general election Nov. 4. Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas,...

MADISON – Drunken drivers are a menace to Wisconsin roadways, and two Republican lawmakers are leading the charge to pass stiffer penalties. But the state’s top cop opposes a lot of what’s contained in the bills being pushed by state Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, questioning the cost and effectiveness of the legislation. “(It’s) not that I believe OWI (Operating While Intoxicated) isn’t a huge problem, not that I don’t believe that we need to do something about it, but because I know we have limited dollars and I want to use them in the...

MADISON — Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that the Department of Justice will appeal the decision issued yesterday in NAACP v. Walker, et al., Dane County Case No. 11-CV-5492. Yesterday afternoon, the Honorable David T. Flanagan issued his decision invalidating and permanently enjoining Wisconsin’s Voter ID law. “My office will be appealing the Dane County Circuit Court’s decision in NAACP v. Walker, et al. Voter identification helps ensure election integrity. It is a measure that protects the right to vote. And similar election integrity reforms have been upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court. I...

What do you make of an attorney who gets 98.6 percent of everything he wants in a lawsuit — and then sues again to get that last 1.4 percent? What if I tell you that, months after filing the appeal, the attorney drops the lawsuit — and sticks his client with the bill? “Wasted effort” comes to mind. “Wasted taxpayer dollars” does as well. That is exactly what Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen did after he made a big deal about appealing a decision, in which a panel of federal judges for the U.S. District Court for Wisconsin’s Eastern...

MADISON — This morning, the three-judge panel from the Eastern District of Wisconsin (Diane P. Wood, Justice-Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, J.P. Stadtmueller, District Court Judge-Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Robert M. Dow, Jr., District Court Judge-Northern District of Illinois) issued its decision in Baldus, et al. v. Brennan, et al., Case No. 11 CV 562, and Voces de la Frontera, Inc. et al. v. Brennan, Case No. 11 CV 1011, which involved challenges to 2011 Wisconsin Acts 43 and 44. Act 44 established the congressional districts within the State of Wisconsin based on 2010 census data and Act 43...

Some rank-and-file members upset with WEAC endorsing a unproven candidate for statewide office who has lost twice already. As Wisconsin taxpayers are faced with an expensive recall election for governor, rank-and-file members of the state’s largest teachers union are fuming mad over the endorsement of a candidate that was hand-picked by their leadership. Kathleen Falk, the former Dane County executive, was endorsed by Wisconsin Education Association Council bosses on Wednesday, with one condition: Uphold a promise to veto the budget reforms instituted by Gov. Scott Walker. Hours after the endorsement, a petition on change.org was created to demand that the...

MADISON — At an average rate of 2.7 signatures entered every second, Wisconsin’s recall petition vetting effort appears to be humming inside the Verify the Recall network. And a top official with the tea party-backed initiative said the review of hundreds of thousands of petitions to date has found numerous invalid signatures — validity issues that could spell problems for the campaign to recall Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, the group contends. Verify the Recall, a joint venture of the Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty and We the People of the Republic, tea party organizations aligned with fiscal conservative movements, bills...

The protesters agreed to leave peacefully so the capitol building could be cleaned. Later, they organized some seminars on "passive resistance". Now they're pouring in the building and refusing to leave unless they're handcuffed. Watch live on Fox.

What do you do if you're the Republican candidate for attorney general and stuck at the top of the ticket is a guy who is going nowhere fast? Abandon your party's gubernatorial candidate by urging voters to split their tickets. That's what Attorney General-elect J.B. Van Hollen did on the eve of the election last week. His campaign slapped together a leaflet aimed at supporters of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, proclaiming: "You can be a GOOD DEMOCRAT and VOTE AGAINST Kathleen FALK." Not the type of pitch that will earn you brownie points with your party. Aw, but what the...