Wisconsin Justice Initiative Blog

Subscribe via RSS
Visit Blog
By: Wisconsin Justice Initiative

Blog Authors

State Bar of Wisconsin
State Bar of Wisconsin

Latest from Wisconsin Justice Initiative Blog

 
Wisconsin Justice Initiative is providing an in-depth look at the constitutional amendments Wisconsin voters will see on their Nov. 3 ballots. This is part two in a series, providing the full text of each ballot question and each proposed amendment as well as the effect the amendment has on the document’s current wording.

Part one in the series provides guidelines for evaluating any proposed state constitutional amendment.
 
A deep dive into each proposed amendment, covering the amendment’s history, sponsors,

…
Continue Reading The Legislature’s Three Proposed Changes to the Wisconsin Constitution: An Overview

Wisconsin voters will encounter three constitutional amendment referendum questions on the Nov. 3 ballot. In a series of posts over the next two weeks, Wisconsin Justice Initiative will help you become an informed voter on constitutional amendment referendums generally and the Nov. 3 election questions specifically.

Because constitutional amendment ballot questions alone do not sufficiently inform you about the proposed changes, ensure you’re up to speed before mailing your ballot or heading to your polling place.

Here are tips

…
Continue Reading Voters beware: What to know about constitutional amendment ballot questions before voting in the November election

https-www-wjiinc-org-uploads-6-1-2-9-61290857-published-guza-jeremy-jpg1789585977
​”Evers’ judges” is our effort to present information about Gov. Tony Evers’ appointees to the bench. The information is taken from the appointees’ own judgeship applications.

Italics indicate direct quotes from the application.​ Typos, including punctuation errors, come from the original application even though we have not inserted “(sic)” after each one. WJI has left them as is.

Picture

Name: Jeremy J. Guza

Appointed to: Waukesha County Circuit Court

Appointment date: July 3, 2026, to term ending July 31, 2027

…
Continue Reading Evers' Judges: Jeremy J. Guza

https-www-wjiinc-org-uploads-6-1-2-9-61290857-published-img-0922-jpg1789508701
Picture
Entrance to the Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing room at the State Capitol in Madison. Photograph by Margo Kirchner.
By Alexandria Staubach Renowned attorney, author, and human rights advocate Bryan Stevenson argued in the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week on behalf of a child charged in adult criminal court.He and the state’s attorney faced frequent questions from the justices (a “hot bench”).Stevenson represents Noah Mann-Tate, who was 10 years old when charged in adult court with intentional first-degree homicide for shooting

…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court opens term with hot bench and famous attorney on issue of child charged in adult court

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals last week held that a $20,000 municipal forfeiture for parking commercial trucks in a residential driveway was unconstitutionally excessive.

District 2 Judge Mark Gundrum issued the one-judge decision, overturning the sanction imposed by Lakeside Municipal Court on a city of Fond du Lac citation.

Dennis Murray appealed from the judgment finding him guilty of violating an ordinance prohibiting parking a commercial walk-in truck in a residential area.

Murray had argued at trial

…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Appeals Court Overturns $20,000 Municipal Forfeiture for Parking Commercial Trucks in Residential Area

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee met last week to approve a $4 million supplemental appropriation for the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The supplement supports grants to law enforcement agencies for data-sharing platforms under a new program created by 2025 Wisconsin Act 58. Act 58 created a short-term grant program for the acquisition and adoption of data-sharing platforms.

According to the law, the platform must be able to “integrate data from common law enforcement systems on a real-time basis”

…
Continue Reading Joint Finance Committee Approves Additional $4 Million for Data Sharing among Law Enforcement

https-www-wisbar-org-newspublications-publishingimages-article%20images-wisconsin-supreme-court-sign-chamber-1200x630-jpg

The Wisconsin Supreme Court opens its session with oral arguments next week, including a case concerning the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s reverse waiver statute.“Reverse waiver” is used to describe a case that begins in adult court but is later transferred to juvenile court. Under the pertinent statute, adult circuit courts exercise original jurisdiction over various homicide charges for any child alleged to have committed the crime “on or after the juvenile’s 10th birthday.” That jurisdiction can only be transferred to

…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court Opens Term with Case of Child Charged in Adult Court

The State Legislature’s Legislative Council created a study committee to evaluate the district attorney funding formula, and the first of four committee meetings occurred at the Capitol last week.

For almost four decades Wisconsin has struggled with the model used to allocate prosecution resources across the state’s many offices.

The current funding formula assigns the available number of full-time employment positions based on caseload as an empirical measure of need.

According to some, the evolution of a prosecutor’s practice

…
Continue Reading Legislative Council’s Study Committee Evaluates Prosecutor Allocations

WJI advocates for progressive change in Wisconsin’s justice system. Some of those changes can only come from legislation and who is positioned to make law. Being so, we are also committed to Wisconsin voter engagement. Whether different or supplemental electoral systems may serve voter’s interests is an open question. Some believe other systems may enhance turn voter out, de-escalate the political climate encouraging more citizen participation, and give the electorate more say as to who makes it on the

…
Continue Reading Other Electoral Systems – Rank Choice Voting

For privacy protection we will refer to a sexual assault victim as Jane Doe. This story briefly recounts a sexual assault.

Iron County Circuit Court Judge Anthony Stella Jr. is refusing to release records of what he and a prosecutor said at a court hearing in a criminal sexual assault case.

Stella and his staff refuse to allow the victim to purchase a transcript of the sentencing hearing of her assailant.

Meanwhile, the judge and his staff have refused

…
Continue Reading Victim’s story leads to Iron County Circuit Court stonewall on public records

By Erik Reinthaler, WJI Intern

On a Thursday morning in July, people trickled into Racine Municipal Court for a docket made up mostly of traffic and ordinance violations. Some seemed to know where to go and what to do. Others needed to be reminded to check in on a computer near the courtroom entrance. As more people arrived, even other court-goers began pointing newcomers toward the sign-in.

Once court started, cases moved quickly. Defendants came forward, entered their pleas

…
Continue Reading Court by Court: Observing Wisconsin’s Municipal Justice System

​”Evers’ judges” is our effort to present information about Gov. Tony Evers’ appointees to the bench. The information is taken from the appointees’ own judgeship applications.

Italics indicate direct quotes from the application.​ Typos, including punctuation errors, come from the original application even though we have not inserted “(sic)” after each one. WJI has left them as is. Asterisks indicate paragraphs deleted due to length of the answer.

Picture

Name: Tanner Brook Kilander

Appointed to: Milwaukee County Circuit Court

Appointment

…
Continue Reading Evers’ Judges: Tanner Brook Kilander

https-www-wjiinc-org-uploads-6-1-2-9-61290857-gundrum_orig-jpg
​By Erik Reinthaler, WJI Intern A divided Wisconsin Court of Appeals late last month reversed a Dane County judge’s ruling that declared major portions of Act 10 unconstitutional. Act 10, enacted in 2011 under former Gov. Scott Walker, significantly limited collective bargaining rights for most state and local government employees while preserving broader bargaining rights for municipal police officers, firefighters and deputy sheriffs. The appellate court found that Wisconsin lawmakers had a reasonable basis for treating some public safety employees differently from

…
Continue Reading District 2 Court of Appeals upholds Act 10

https-www-wisbar-org-newspublications-publishingimages-article%20images-wisconsin-supreme-court-sign-chamber-1200x630-jpg

Note: We are crunching Supreme Court of Wisconsin decisions down to size. The rule for this is that no justice gets more than 10 paragraphs as written in the actual decision. The “upshot” and “background” sections do not count as part of the 10 paragraphs because of their summary and necessary nature. We’ve also removed citations from the opinion for ease of. Italics indicate WJI insertions. Emphasis in the original is italicized and underlined.

Case: Wisconsin State Legislature v.

…
Continue Reading The SCOW Docket: Attorney General Controls Settlement Funds

https-www-wjiinc-org-uploads-6-1-2-9-61290857-published-img-8487-jpeg1785528188

Picture

The Milwaukee Common Council meeting on July 31, 2026. Photograph by Alexandria Staubach.
By Alexandria Staubach

Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission candidate Jordan Morales failed to obtain enough votes for confirmation at a Milwaukee Common Council meeting this morning after some alders shared concerns about his seeming complacency with the status quo.

The confirmation failed in a 6-6 tie with three alders abstaining.

The surprising vote comes after Morales was recommended by the Common Council’s Public Safety Committee last

…
Continue Reading Milwaukee Common Council Dismisses Fire and Police Commission Candidate

Milwaukee is again facing a nearly $100 million dollar gap between what it wants to fund and the cash it will have in the coming year.Despite the shortfall, the Milwaukee Police Department’s budget is likely to significantly increase.

Proposed areas for cuts include election operations and civic engagement, library hours, sanitation and street maintenance.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson is seeking input from city residents as his office works to close the $96 million dollar gap. The city has posted

…
Continue Reading Milwaukee Mayor Asks Residents to Weigh In on Budget Cuts as MPD’s Share of Expenditures Swells