WisBar Court Review

WisBar Court Review, published by the State Bar of Wisconsin, includes summaries and analysis of decisions from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, as well as other court developments.

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By: State Bar of Wisconsin​

Latest from WisBar Court Review - Page 2

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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

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July 15, 2025 – The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held (4-3) that five statutes giving the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) “the power to pause, object to, or suspend administrative rules for varying lengths of time” are facially unconstitutional. “The challenged statutes … empower JCRAR to take action that alters legal rights and duties outside of the legislative branch,” wrote Chief Justice Jill J. Karofsky in

Evers v. Marklein, 2025 WI 36 (July

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Legislative Holds on Rules Unconstitutional

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July 8, 2025 – A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court recently determined that 2011 Wis. Act 10 (Act 10) removed the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority (Authority) from prior statutory requirements to collectively bargain.

The decision came in Service Employees International Union Healthcare Wisconsin (SEIU) v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC), 2025 WI 29 (June 27, 2025).

The Court disagreed, however, with methods of statutory interpretation as defined in State ex rel. Kalal v. Circuit Court for

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Continue Reading Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court Decision Divides on Statutory Interpretation

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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