Wisconsin judges in the news

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Articles: Overview (click on link for complete article)

• (Wisconsin Justice Calls for Reform) Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack addressed the Governing Board of Common Cause Wisconsin saying she's in support of revamping Wisconsin judicial races. While Roggensack does not support an unelected judiciary, she is concerned with the amount of special- interest influence in today's judicial races. In that vein, she called for publicly financed judicial campaigns. See here for Common Cause's Press Release. (9/19/2008)

• (Judge asks cops to write fewer tickets) Municipal Judge Joseph L. Cook, unhappy with an unfilled vacancy in his court, said that he will ask police to write fewer tickets, despite big crowds expected in Waukesha in connection with Harley Fest. “I’ll have to cut down on my trial level and ask the Police Department to cut down on the number of tickets,” he said.

• (Outagamie judge McGinnis delinquent on property taxes) Judge Mark McGinnis, an Outagamie County judge, owes $24,000 in delinquent property taxes and interest on an office building he owns and leases to the state Department of Administration. Probation and parole agents with the Department of Corrections use the space and that agency pays the lease.

• (Former Supreme Court justice to head liquor panel) Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines says he will appoint former state Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler to chair a panel on alcohol licensing. Hines announced in June that he would appoint a task force to study how liquor licenses are granted in Milwaukee and recommend reforms. The creation of this panel follows former Alderman Michael McGee's conviction for shaking down business owners in his district and threatening them with the loss of their liquor licenses.

• Group: Wis. Supreme Court race was most expensive, Chicago Tribune 7/22/08

• Ziegler, big lobby think alike (7/14/08)

• Major tax decision coming from Wis. Supreme Court (7/9/08) A ruling that could blow a $265 million hole in the Wisconsin budget is coming Friday from the state Supreme Court. At issue is whether the Wisconsin Department of Revenue correctly determines what computer software is subject to the sales tax. State law waives sales and use taxes on software that has been customized.

• The New Politics of Judicial Elections in the Great Lakes States, 2000-2008
• Wisconsin SC upholds $500k injury award (4/11/2008)
• Gableman's victory shifts court to right (4/02/2008)
• Improper role for state Bar (1/18/2008)
• Appointed Supreme Court a Terrible Idea (1/15/2008)
• Justice Butler Gets One Foe: Supreme Court Ideology will Hinge on Contest (1/03/2008)
• Elect or appoint? We're with the chief (5/14/2008) Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the former Arizona state legislator who was appointed to the nation's highest court because of her personal and political connections to former Chief Justice William Rehnquist and other key Republicans, came to Wisconsin last week and suggested that the state should stop electing judges.