Yearly Archives: 2023

(The Center Square) – There’s not a lot of confidence about free speech on University of Wisconsin campuses.

The university released the results of its free speech survey on Wednesday. The results show more than half of students are afraid to share their opinions on controversial topics, while a third of students want the UW to place restrictions on who can say what.

“More than half of our students, 57%, reported wanting to express their views about a controversial topic in class but decided not to,” UW President Jay Rothman said on Twitter. “Some worried that other students would disagree with their views, or that the instructor would find their views offensive, or that they would get a lower grade.”

The survey quizzed nearly 11,00 students at 13 UW campuses. It asked about free speech in the classroom, on campus, and what responsibility the university has to make sure invited speakers don’t say something that students find offensive.

“About one in three students think ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a great deal’ that administrators should disinvite such speakers,” Rothman explained.

The university held a forum on the results Wednesday, and some faculty members defended the idea of limiting who can speak to students.

"I think students are within their rights to protest speakers," Franciska Coleman, an assistant professor at UW-Madison's Law School, said at the forum. "I think the problem is that universities don't have a process for making sure it's not just a squeaky wheel, right, it's two students and the speaker is disinvited."

Lawmakers have been concerned about free speech at the University of Wisconsin for years.

State Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, said he was struck by how many students self-censor.

"The difference in how students feel on campus, whether they are conservative or liberal, that is probably the most dramatic difference in the results that are here in the survey,"

Rothman said he hopes to use the survey results as a “foundation” to “evaluate critically” speech on campus.

“We want to understand what the climate is on our campuses around freedom of expression, around concerns around self censorship, around students’ understanding about whether or not they can have a civil dialogue,” Rothman said.

(The Center Square) – The harsh feelings over Wisconsin’s last race for Supreme Court are casting a shadow over the current race for the high court.

Former Justice Dan Kelly, who is running for the court, said Tuesday night that he won’t endorse Judge Jenifer Dorow if she wins the primary for Supreme Court in three weeks.

“Before I endorse, I need to see proof of what a person means when they say they are a judicial conservative,” Kelly said at a judicial forum hosted by the Republican Women in Greater Milwaukee. “I need to see it in writing, I need to see it in speeches, I need to see it in opinions, I need to see it somewhere. Because I am not going to endorse any more unless there is that proof.”

Kelly said his endorsement of Justice Brian Hagedorn has him taking such a strict stand now.

“I took a risk,” Kelly added. “I endorsed him, I campaigned for him, and I helped him get on the Supreme Court. And when he came, it turned out he really wasn’t [a judicial conservative.]”

Hagedorn has become the swing vote on the court, and has ruled with the court liberal members several times.

Kelly’s comments go along with a theme of this year’s race, that Dorow may be another non-conservative Republican judge.

Dorow said she was conservative enough for other conservatives to seek her endorsement.

“My background and my experience, apparently, was good enough for each of them to ask for my endorsement at one point. I didn’t always give it, but I was asked,” Dorow said. “And now, apparently, it’s not good enough to get the endorsement back.”

Kelly served four years on the Wisconsin Supreme Court before being defeated in 2020.

Dorow has spent her career as a prosecutor and a judge. She most famously presided over the Waukesha Christmas Parade killer’s trial.

Kelly said voters can judge him based on his years of rulings as a judge and Supreme Court justice. Dorrow doesn’t have the same history.

Dorrow said her focus is not on splitting the Republican or conservative base, and not allowing the Supreme Court to flip to a liberal majority.

“I’m not going to take a chance to take somebody out, so the Left can win this election," Dorow added. “We need to win this.”

Kelly brushed off that criticism.

“My commitment today is the same as it’s been my entire career, and always will be. I will promote judicial conservatism in every way that I can.”

Voters will choose between Kelly and Dorow, and two liberal judges Everett Mitchell and Janet Protasiewicz in the primary on Feb. 21. The top two vote getters will then face off in April.

President Joe Biden's personal residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, was searched by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday as part of an ongoing probe into classified documents, according to a statement released by Biden's personal attorney.

"Today, with the President's full support and cooperation, the DOJ is conducting a planned search of his home in Rehoboth, Delaware," attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement. "Under DOJ's standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate."

Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to lead the investigation into Biden after classified documents were found at Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center and at his home in Delaware.

CBS has reported that investigators found classified documents at a former private office of Biden's in Washington, D.C. The Department of Justice did a search of the president's main residence in Wilmington, Delaware, as part of the probe.

RNC Research, run by the Republican National Committee, responded on Twitter to the search.

"On January 12, the White House said SIX TIMES the search for classified documents was 'complete.' The FBI is currently searching Biden's beach house," RNC Research tweeted.

Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, tweeted, "Being told, this was a preplanned, consensual search. This is not a search warrant that the FBI is executing. Big difference."

Vance compared the searches involving Biden for classified documents to that of former president Donald Trump.

"Biden let the FBI come in & search," Vance tweeted. "Prosecutors obtained a search warrant from a fed'l judge for Mar-a-Lago based on probable cause to believe evidence/fruits of a crime would be found on the premises."

(The Center Square) – There’s now a formal complaint over how one of the liberal candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is campaigning. A western Wisconsin man, Randall Cook, filed the complaint Monday.

He said Judge Janet Protasiewicz has violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct by talking openly about how she’d rule on cases that will likely come before the Supreme Court. Specifically, the complaint says Protasiewicz has called Wisconsin’s political maps ‘"rigged," and has said she supports abortion and same sex marriage laws.

“Put simply Judge Protasiewicz is promising her vote on certain cases as a way to win over voters,” Cook said in his complaint. “This is completely unethical and cannot be condoned. As a result of her statements, there is no way Judge Protasiewicz can impartially participate in any future case involving Wisconsin’s current legislative maps or any legal challenge involving abortion law.”

Candidates for the court are not supposed to tip their hand about how they may rule.

Cook added that not only are Protasiewicz’s comments wrong, they hurt the reputation of the court itself.

“It is inappropriate for lower court judges to criticize judicial decisions of higher court judges. Such comments are out-of-bounds and undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary,” Cook wrote.

Wisconsin’s Republican Party said the court should, at the very least, order Protasiewicz to recuse herself from any case that she’s talked about during the campaign.

“Janet Protasiewicz has decided to disregard her obligation to abide by the Code of Judicial Conduct in her pursuit of a place on the Supreme Court. The Judicial Commission must act and Protasiewicz clearly must recuse herself from participating in cases involving redistricting, abortion and Act 10 union reforms because she’s absolutely unwilling to hear them with an open mind,” Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Mark Jefferson said. “A high court candidate has never taken such an extreme stand in defiance of her responsibility to remain unbiased or set aside her personal beliefs on cases set to come before the Court, and Wisconsin deserves much better than the liberal personal agenda of Janet Protasiewicz.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor says he will 100% veto a flat tax, and the top Republican in the State Assembly says he knows that.

Both Gov. Tony Evers and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talked about the proposal to take Wisconsin to a 3.25% flat income tax during appearances on TV over the weekend.

The governor was on Capital City Sunday in Madison. He once again vowed to kill the flat tax proposal.

”The flat tax proposal, where it’s going to be equal across all parts of Wisconsin, is not in my bailiwick,” Evers said during the interview,

Evers has made it clear in the past that he doesn’t support the Republican’s flat tax proposal, but he said for the first time over the weekend that he may “possibly” veto the entire state budget to stop it from happening.

“[The flat tax] is a death nail for me,” the governor added. “I think our progressive tax system is a good one. And we don’t need to be spending our time and effort to provide the wealthiest of Wisconsinites with an extraordinarily large tax cut.”

Meanwhile Vos was on UPFRONT on Milwaukee TV, talking about the flat tax as well.

“I think we need to have significant tax reform to be able to make sure that Wisconsin remains competitive,” Vos said.

Vos said that may or may not include a 3.25% flat tax.

“That would be my preference. But again, I understand that Gov. Evers has concerns with that,” Vos added. “The most important thing for us to do, is we have to make big efforts toward reducing our tax burden. A flat tax would be ideal. But if we can’t get to ideal, there are other ways to get there.”

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, who introduced the flat tax proposal this month, has said the flat tax proposal currently up for debate may not be the final plan that reaches the governor’s desk.

Gov. Evers will deliver his budget speech next month, and the Republican-controlled legislature will then write the state’s new two-year spending plan.

Evers said on Capital City Sunday that his ideas, even in a Republican budget, “never go away.”

In addition to tax reform, this year’s budget will likely include something new on shared revenue of local governments, school funding, and other plans on how to spend or return Wisconsin’s record $7.1 billion surplus to taxpayers.

(The Center Square) – While Joe Biden and Donald Trump remain very popular with their respective bases, nearly half of voters in their own parties don’t want them to run for president again.

The latest Marquette Law School Poll, released Thursday, shows that 48% of registered Republicans don’t want Trump on the ticket next year. Among Democrats, the poll says 51% of voters don’t want to see Biden run for reelection.

“In the case of the former president and the current president, their parties are pretty divided over them as candidates even though the parties have pretty positive views of them individually,” MU lead pollster Charles Franklin said.

Trump is viewed favorably by 70% of Republican voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 83% of Democrats.

The poll also shows that Trump and Biden would tie in a 2024 head-to-head match-up.

“We see a tie between Biden and Trump, 40% for each of them,” Franklin explained. “That’s an improvement for Trump. In November Biden led 44-34, a 10-point lead.”

The new MU Poll did not ask about a head-to-head between Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but those results may be different.

Republican voters told pollsters that they have an even more favorable view of DeSantis than Trump, with 71% of voters liking DeSantis compared to 70% for Trump.

Biden is the most popular Democrat with the support of 83% of Democrats, Bernie Sanders is second at 75%. Interestingly, the poll says Vice President Kamala Harris is the third most popular Democrat with a 67% favorability rating, while also being the most unpopular Democrat with a 23% unfavorable rating according to the poll.

The most unpopular Republican, according to the poll, is former Vice President Mike Pence. Thirty-three percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of him, compared to the 28% unfavorable rating for Trump.

(The Center Square) – The State Bar of Wisconsin says the lack of prosecutors and public defenders in the state’s courtrooms will likely get worse.

The past, current, and future heads of the association on Monday warned of a constitutional crisis because there are not enough attorneys to handle cases across the state.

The State Bar is asking lawmakers in Madison to look to use some of Wisconsin’s record $6.6 billion surplus to send more money to both district attorneys and the state public defender’s office.

In a joint statement, the Bar's Margaret W. Hickey, Dean R. Dietrich, and Cheryl Furstace Daniels said, “[We are] substantially concerned over staffing and funding issues in our state’s criminal justice system. Specifically, the staffing crisis in our District Attorney offices, State Public Defender’s office and with those private attorneys that take assigned counsel cases is beyond its breaking point.”

Their warning comes just weeks after Dodge County’s district attorney resigned, leaving that office without a full-time prosecutor.

“District attorneys across the state have either staff shortages or positions they are unable to fill as salaries have not kept pace with the employment market,” the Bar leaders said. “Starting pay for new assistant prosecutors ranks Wisconsin among the bottom 10 nationally.”

The annual starting pay for many assistant prosecutors in Wisconsin starts around $50,000.

The Bar says pay for public defenders is equally low, about $25 per hour, and is one of the reasons it is growing difficult to find lawyers to represent defendants who cannot hire a private attorney.

“State Public Defender Kelli Thompson has also highlighted these same issues with public defenders, indicating that her agency is almost down 20% of their typical attorney employees. The issue is even more eye opening in rural counties with staff vacancies that are not able to be filled,” the Bar leaders added.

The State Bar says a constitutional crisis is looming.

Its statement read, “Make no mistake, this is a defining moment for those that believe in our constitution. This is about victims that are waiting too long for justice. This is about those accused of a crime that are incarcerated without the ability to defend their constitutional right to receive a fair and speedy trial. This is about our hard-working state employees who are reporting emotional exhaustion and work stressors that impact their personal lives.”