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Dec. 16, 2025 – A car enthusiast who likes vanity plates to express his opinions recently lost his First Amendment claim on summary judgment before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The court in M J Nichols Company, Inc. v. Thompson, No. 24-cv-566-amb (W.D. Wis., Dec. 12, 2025), held that a license plate is government speech.

Whether the language on a license plate is individual expression or government speech to which the First Amendment doesn’t

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Continue Reading U.S. District Court: First Amendment Doesn’t Protect ‘RD RRAGE’

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Nov. 25, 2025 – In what may be the first case of its kind, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in

State v. Melssen, No. 2024AP1942-CR (Nov. 20, 2025) (recommended for publication) vacated an order denying suppression of evidence obtained from an overly broad search of a smartphone. Presiding Judge Rachel A. Graham, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, concluded “the warrant to search [Emil] Melssen’s smartphone – which authorized officers to search virtually all of the messages, images,

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Smartphone Search Unconstitutionally Overbroad

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Nov. 12, 2025 – A required administrative referral for criminal prosecution didn’t apply for allegedly breaking controlled substances laws, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently held in
State v. Syrrakos, No. 2024AP554-CR and
State v. Shattuck, No. 2024AP556-CR (Oct. 29, 2025) (recommended for publication). The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the consolidated cases against Christopher J. Syrrakos and Kristyn A. Shattuck to Waukesha County Circuit Court. The circuit court dismissed the cases because the Department of

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Controlled Substance Violation Doesn't Get Hemp Regulatory Protection

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Oct. 14, 2025 – A circuit court’s failure to instruct the jury to decide on each period of abandonment denied a mother due process protection of a five-sixths verdict, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals decided in

S. S. v. A. S.-P., No. 2024AP2532 (Sept. 23, 2025) (recommended for publication). The decision clarifies “unsettled law,” justifying reversal of the Brown County Circuit Court verdict for plain error. “When multiple periods of abandonment are alleged, that statute requires the jury

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Separate Abandonment Claims Require Separate Verdicts

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Oct. 14, 2025 – The statute setting requirements for recommitting an individual that the circuit court had conditionally released after a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect the Wisconsin Court of Appeals found unconstitutional in State v. ​Wilhite, No. 2024AP2177-CR (Sept. 25, 2025) (recommended for publication).

Due process requires a finding of dangerousness, explained Presiding Judge JoAnn F. Kloppenburg for the unanimous panel, including Judges Brian W. Blanchard and Jennifer E. Nashold.

The

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Dangerousness Necessary to Support Recommittal

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Sept. 22, 2025 – Two state statutes that covered the same criminal act – one that required a mandatory minimum sentence – were not unconstitutional under federal and state precedent, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District I recently held in

State v. Kenyon, No. 2022AP2228-CR (Sept. 16, 2025) (recommended for publication). “[W]e find no case that stands for or even implicitly supports the proposition that a trial penalty is imposed when the State chooses to charge a defendant

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: No ‘Trial Penalty’ for Different Sentences in Similar Statutes

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Sept. 2, 2025 – A police request to enter an apartment to search for a missing child – when they really sought evidence of drug dealing – voided any consent that the defendant may have given, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin decided in U.S.A. v. Jose Angel Hernandez-Pineda, No. 25-CR-64 (Aug. 25, 2025), available at 2025 WL 2438683.

“In this case, the officers told Hernandez-Pineda that they needed to get into his home to

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Continue Reading U.S. District Court Suppresses Evidence: Police Ruse Defeats Voluntary Consent

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Aug. 18, 2025 – The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s (UW) removal of Madeline Krasno’s comments on its Facebook and Instagram posts violated the First Amendment because its policies were not reasonable or content-neutral, a 2-1 majority on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held in

Madeline Krasno v. Jennifer Mnookin, No. 22-3170 (Aug. 1, 2025).

“In short, [UW’s] inflexible and context-blind keyword filters do not reasonably further its ‘off-topic’ justification when there is no way

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Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: U.W.’s Blocking ‘Off Topic’ Comments Violated First Amendment

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Aug. 12, 2025 – A mistrial based on a misunderstanding of Wisconsin’s
State v. Denny led to unconstitutional double jeopardy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held recently in

Mitchell D. Green v. Milwaukee County Circuit Court, No. 24-2980 (Aug. 1, 2025). The reversal of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin resulted in Green receiving the requested writ of habeas corpus, freeing him from retrial. “By relying on a mistake

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Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: No ‘Manifest Necessity’ for Mistrial Requires Reversal

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July 29, 2025 – The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed that Luis A. Ramirez’s constitutional claim for a speedy trial violation failed, with five justices joining most of the majority opinion in

State v. Ramirez, 2025 WI 28 (June 27, 2025). “At  most, we could assign the State responsibility for 958 days of delay, caused by neutral reasons weighed against the State, but not heavily,” wrote Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley for the 5-2 majority opinion. “Ramirez waited 32 months

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Speedy Trial Not Violated After 46 months

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July 29, 2025 – Flight from domestic violence excused driving with a prohibited alcohol concentration (PAC) but not long enough as a defense when police stopped the victim, six Wisconsin Supreme Court justices agreed in State v. Stetzer, 2025 WI 34 (July 3, 2025).

“[T]he circuit court correctly required that all elements of the coercion defense be met for the entire duration of [Joan L.] Stetzer’s ongoing, otherwise-criminal act and considered Stetzer’s personal history when evaluating the reasonableness

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Coercion Defense Didn’t Last

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July 29, 2025 – The circuit court’s dismissal of a second conviction, which it reinstated after the Wisconsin Court of Appeals reversed on the remaining guilty verdict, did not violate the defendants’ rights, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed in State v. Carl Lee McAdory, 2025 WI 30.

Five justices had one justification for upholding the conviction reinstatement while two others proposed to reverse precedent they said was inconsistent with the statute’s plain meaning.

“[W]e hold that the circuit

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Continue Reading State Supreme Court Upholds Reinstatement of Conviction in OWI Case

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July 29, 2025 – Although an administrative law judge (ALJ) found sufficient evidence of probation violations, a reversal satisfied the low bar of certiorari review, a 6-1 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded in

State ex rel. Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections (DOC) v. Brian Hayes, 2025 WI 35 (July 3, 2025). “In sum, we conclude that under the certiorari standard of review, the administrator’s decision must be upheld because it is supported by substantial

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Substantial Evidence Supports Reversal of Parole Revocation

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July 25, 2025 – In the past 50 years, the Wisconsin Legislature effectively wrote out of existence an 1849 abortion law, a 4-3 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded this month in holding the original law impliedly repealed in Kaul v. Urmanski, 2025 WI 32.

“We conclude that comprehensive legislation enacted over the last 50 years regulating in detail the ‘who, what, where, when, and how’ of abortion so thoroughly covers the entire subject of abortion that

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Legislature Impliedly Repealed Abortion Law

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July 22, 2025 – The Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission’s recommendations for appointment as judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently landed at the White House for potential nomination by President Donald Trump.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who re-established the bipartisan commission in April, approved the Federal Nominating Commission’s list of potential candidates to fill Chief Judge Sykes’ seat. She will take senior status in October.

The six-member

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Continue Reading Federal Nominating Commission Submits Judicial Recommendations

The recent conviction of Maxwell Anderson for the murder and dismemberment of Sade Robinson is causing me to do something quite rare: write a column praising our legal system. It almost hurts to write this!

To be sure, the jury verdict doesn’t comprise perfect justice. Perfect justice would entail Superman spinning the world backwards to reverse time so that Sade Robinson never met this man. Sadly, the resources of our legal system don’t have the ability to do that;…
Continue Reading Perfect and not-so-perfect justice