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July 1, 2025 – The Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) communications that added PFAS chemicals to its enforcement of the Spills Law fell within acceptable guidance documents – not illegal regulations – a 5-2 Wisconsin Supreme Court majority recently decided in Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Inc. (WMC) v. Wisconsin Natural Resources Board, 2025 WI 26 (June 24, 2025).

Justice Janet C. Protasiewicz, writing for the majority, concluded that statutory definitions of an administrative rule did not require “the

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: DNR's Communications Were Guidance Documents, Not Rules

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June 27, 2025 – A bill creating an account for literacy programs cannot be transformed by association with related bills into an appropriation bill, rendering Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto unconstitutional, a unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court recently in Wisconsin State Legislature v. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), 2025 WI 17 –

The inter-branch spat spurred the Joint Committee on Finance (JCF) to withhold funds from DPI, but the Supreme Court held that was OK: The appropriation was

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Continue Reading Partial Veto Doesn’t Work on Non-Appropriation Bill, State Supreme Court Rules

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June 27, 2025 – Class certification cannot be decided on claim merits, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed unanimously in McDaniel v. Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC), 2025 WI 24 (June 25, 2025).

“We clarify that a court should not consider the viability of the class’s claim on the merits when addressing commonality and typicality,” Justice Janet C. Protasiewicz wrote.

Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler, joined by Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley, disagreed with the majority only in that they shouldn’t

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Class Certification Must be Decided Before Merits

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June 24, 2025 – The Wisconsin Legislature overstepped its constitutional bounds when it required the Attorney General to submit proposed settlements in two types of civil cases to the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC), a unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court decided last week ​in
Kaul v. Wisconsin State Legislature, 2025 WI 23. The challenge to Wis. Stat.
section 165.08(1) – passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker after the 2018 elections changed the balance of power

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: DOJ Authorized to Settle Civil Cases

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June 17, 2025 – An expert witness answering a juror’s question about the frequency of false reports of child sexual abuse remains permissible testimony, a unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Friday in State v. Molde, 2025 WI 21.

The conclusion reverses precedent binding on the court of appeals from State v. Mader, 2023 WI App 35, that applied the prohibition against vouching for witness credibility in State v. Hazeltine, 120 Wis. 2d 92 (Ct. App. 1984).

“We

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Expert Statistics Not Witness Vouching

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June 16, 2025 – A 6-1 Wisconsin Supreme Court majority in State v. Grady, 2025 WI 22 recently agreed that Waukesha County Circuit Court did not deprive the defendant of due process when it alerted the defendant, appearing by Zoom, that the courtroom would hear his conversation with his lawyer.

“We defer to the circuit court’s factual finding that [Kordell L.] Grady did not intend for his conversation with his counsel during the restitution hearing to be confidential

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Warning Sufficient That Client Wasn’t Speaking Confidentially

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June 11, 2025 – No specific burden of proof applies when a circuit court decides whether termination of parental rights (TPR) is in the best interest of the child, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided recently in

State v. H.C., 2025 WI 20. In unanimously affirming the TPR against H.C., the majority opinion written by Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley explained, “we hold the best interests of the child governing the dispositional phase of a TPR proceeding constitutes a discretionary

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: No Burden of Proof at TPR Disposition

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June 4, 2025 – A 5-2 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Friday in

Hubbard v. Neuman, 2025 WI 15, that a patient’s informed consent complaint against her doctor could proceed even though the doctor didn’t participate in the surgery that resulted in the patient’​s ovaries being removed. “Taking [Melissa] Hubbard’s allegations as true and drawing all reasonable inferences from a required liberal construction of those allegations, we determine Dr. Neuman failed to show that under no

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: Doctor Potentially Liable Even if Not Physically Present

May 20, 2025

Much as I would prefer any other topic for my column this month, the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan was the biggest story in local law in, well, forever.

In the event you’ve been living under a rock, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested April 25 at the courthouse on charges of helping a defendant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had a case in her courtroom, evade immigration authorities who had a warrant for his…
Continue Reading Weighing the consequences of Judge Dugan’s arrest

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May 19, 2025 – A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permit did not need to require supplementary battery storage for a new natural gas-fired electric generating plant, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals decided Thursday in
Sierra Club v. DNR, No. 2024AP673 (May 15, 2025). The court remanded the permit to DNR because part of the permit’s basis comes from the agency’s Background Concentration Protocol, which the court held was an unpromulgated rule – created outside the required

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Gas-Fired Power Plant Rule Requires Remand

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May 13, 2025 – Three victims of a violent 2015 hostage-taking in Neenah recently lost their Fourth Amendment claims before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Moderson v. City of Neenah, No. 23-2843 (May 9, 2025).

In a decision written by Circuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi and joined by Judges Frank H. Easterbrook and Ilana Diamond Rovner, the dangerous crime scene made brief seizures reasonable even when two victims were handcuffed

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Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals: Rough Handling Not Wrongful Seizure

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May 2, 2025 – The partial veto power extends to allow Gov. Tony Evers to change a biennial budget provision to last 402 years, a 4-3 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held in LeMieux v. Evers, 2025 WI 12.

The dissent found this partial veto problem greater than the acts of the current governor – 49 years of supreme court decisions strayed from the constitution, necessitating correction.

Revenue Increase Through 2425

In the 2023-25 biennial budget,

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Continue Reading Constitution Allows Partial Veto Fixing Biennial Budget Increase for 402 Years

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April 24, 2025 – After an employer had police investigate possible theft by employees, the employees’ subsequent discharge violated the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act’s (WFEA) prohibitions against termination discrimination because of an arrest record, a 5-2 supreme court majority decided April 10 in

Oconomowoc Area School District v. Cota, 2025 WI 11.

Three justices didn’t like that result. Justice Janet C. Protasiewicz’s concurrence said this “strange result” required legislative revision of the WFEA.

Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler’s

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Continue Reading Suspicious District Faulted for WFEA Firing Violation

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April 9, 2025 – The Wisconsin Supreme Court became the ultimate referee Tuesday in deciding 5-2 in Halter v. Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA), 2025 WI 10 that the WIAA acted reasonably in suspending high school wrestler Hayden Halter for unsportsmanlike conduct.

However, four justices didn’t think the case fit the supreme court’s docket. Justice Janet C. Protasiewicz, joined by Justice Jill J. Karofsky, concurred with the majority but concluded that the WIAA, a private, contractual organization, was not

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court Denies Wrestler's Suspension Challenge

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April 3, 2025 – The 19-year appeal odyssey of Jacob Alan Powers may have ended last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided in
Powers v. Noble, No. 24-2134 (March 25, 2025) that Powers was competent at his 2006 trial. The result of the federal habeas corpus review stretched out because of changes in the arguments Powers made. But the final arguments ended where they began, arguing that he was not competent to

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Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: Competency Shown Over Mental Health Limitations

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April 2, 2025 – An appellate fast break by the Wisconsin Attorney General last weekend failed to net an emergency injunction, and Elon Musk gave away $2 million from his America PAC at his Sunday evening rally. Attorney General Josh Kaul sought the preliminary injunction because his office believed the planned giveaway violated statutory prohibitions in Wis. Stat. section 12.11(1m) on giving anything of value to encourage voting, in this instance, yesterday’s Supreme Court election. Musk has shown support

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Continue Reading Election-Related Injunction Fails at Wisconsin Supreme Court