Blog

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.

FRANK V. WALKER / LULAC V. DEININGER

When Wisconsin implemented voter ID , progressive groups filed federal lawsuits arguing that the law was racist. We provided legal counsel for a key state witness during the trial held for these consolidated cases. We also filed an amicus brief in the 7th Circuit, which upheld the law.

KITTLE V. JEFFERSON COUNTY

In response to a 7th Circuit decision, overcautious law enforcement departments around the state started redacting basic information from incident reports and citations – information like who committed the crime. We filed a lawsuit and obtained a favorable settlement where the Jefferson Country Sheriff’s Department turned over unredacted records related to an incident where a women vandalized a GOP booth at the county fair.

LUEDERS V. KRUG

State Assembly members have a policy of refusing to provide electronic copies of files, instead printing them out and demanding that requesters travel to Madison to obtain them. Along with four other organizations concerned about government transparency, we filed an amicus brief in a case challenging that practice.