Blog

MACIVER V. ERPENBACH

State Senator Jon Erpenbach redacted the names of hundreds of people who contacted him regarding Act 10 from emails he produced in response to a records request. We sued and obtained a published decision from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals requiring him to release the names of public employees who wrote him.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS V. WALKER

This challenge to the voter ID law argued that the presentation of an ID was an “additional qualification” to vote not permitted by the Wisconsin Constitution. In amicus briefs, WILL argued that it was not an additional qualification, but rather a method of establishing that a voter meets the existing qualifications. The court of appeals and supreme court agreed, upholding the law.

NAACP V. WALKER

This challenge to the voter ID law argued that it denied minorities the right to vote, because they were less likely to have an ID. We filed amicus briefs justifying the law by showing that voter fraud exists in Wisconsin and can swing local elections that are sometimes decided by single-digit margins. The supreme court upheld the law.

RICE V. MILW. CO. BD. 2013

The Milwaukee County Board voted in closed session to authorize collective bargaining (illegally, under Act 10), and travelled to Madison en masse to speak at a legislative hearing on a bill affecting the Board’s authority. We sued, arguing that both incidents violated the Open Meetings Law, but the judge disagreed.

KRUEGER V. APPLETON S.D.

Wisconsin school districts often form committees to review book selections for libraries and literature classes. Appleton Area School District didn’t hold those committee meetings in public, however, and we filed suit. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the district violated the Open Meetings Law.

COYNE V. WALKER

Even though the Wisconsin Constitution expressly says that the legislature can define the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s powers, the SPI ignored a 2011 law requiring agencies to get gubernatorial approval before implementing new rules. We filed an amicus brief urging the Wisconsin Supreme Court to apply the Constitution’s plain language, but the Court disagreed.

JOHNSON V. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

The ACA requires congress and staff to purchase their insurance plans through exchanges, with no tax-free employer contribution. Obama’s Administration defied the law and continued to make tax-free contributions. On behalf of Senator Ron Johnson and one of his staff, we sued. But the courts concluded that because they “benefited” from the illegal actions, they lacked standing to challenge them.

WILL V. MILWAUKEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Sometimes we need to file a suit on our own behalf. The Milwaukee Public Schools were unreasonably delaying responding to a records request. They turned the records over the day after we sued them.