Category: State news

While there are still two months to go, it’s possible the race will stay muted because the stakes are different with no Supreme Court majority on the line, said Howard Schweber, a professor emeritus of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Neither outcome will change liberal control of the court, though because the winner will replace retiring conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, it could extend guaranteed liberal control until at least 2030.

The Trump endorsement cuts both ways, said Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. On the plus side, Tiffany doesn’t have to worry about draining his resources on a primary fight, and can immediately direct his focus on the general election.

The downside? Tiffany is now tied to Trump, whose popularity is suffering, and the president’s party traditionally struggles in midterm elections, Burden noted.

“He’s going to have to negotiate expressing his own identity as a candidate versus trying to take advantage of the enthusiasm that Trump voters have (for Trump) in particular, and to get them out,” Burden said.

A growing number of states, including Illinois, prohibit openly carrying “long guns” — meaning rifles and shotguns — at protests. Those rules aim to prevent armed confrontations between protesters, counterprotesters and law enforcement, said University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor John Gross. “What (law enforcement) don’t want,” he said, “is a situation where you have two armed groups facing off against one another with the police in between them.”

Andrew Reschovsky, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, said Wisconsin has a particularly complex system of school funding.

“The legislature said we are not going to increase state aid at all, not by one penny of general aid,” Reschovsky said.

Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said Madison’s argument is “conflating two different things.”

“The Legislature has, in these absentee voting statutes, made clear that it considers absentee voting to be a privilege, in that absentee voting as a method is not constitutionally required, and that the Legislature can impose some additional procedures on absentee voting that it maybe couldn’t impose on in-person voting,” said Godar. “That privileged language does not mean that when you vote absentee, you don’t have a right to have your vote counted.”

Political experts have said it’s possible, but not likely, congressional candidates will run on new maps this year.

“I think it’s not impossible, but a court would really have to give dedicated attention to the case and prioritize it over others,” Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last month. “There would just have to be a kind of rapid-fire set of events to get through all those steps in time for the 2026 cycle.”

Still, University of Wisconsin Law School professor and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative Rob Yablon noted, “it’s conceivable” the plaintiffs in the case brought by Elias Law Group will push for a speedy process. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Julie Zuckerbrod, argued during a scheduling conference that the case could in fact be decided in time for the 2026 election.

The high court ruling is narrow, according to Bryna Godar, an attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The ruling finds that “most matters relating to judicial disqualification [do] not rise to a constitutional level,” Godar noted in an email to WPR.

“Typically, state supreme courts provide the final word on attorney discipline proceedings. But where an attorney raises federal constitutional issues, like due process, that can in some cases open a path for federal court involvement,” Godar wrote.

“They could draw the districts as they wanted, and they went to town,” said Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “They were very successful in drawing districts that advantage their party in the state Legislature and in the congressional districts, but they also wanted the process to be different if there was going to be litigation.”

Despite the proposed changes, Wisconsin wetlands are likely to fare better than most states. A 2001 law provided robust protections for isolated wetlands or those that aren’t directly connected to streams and rivers, said Steph Tai, a law professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

“Anyone who’s looking to fill in wetlands within Wisconsin is still going to have to go through permitting through our DNR,” Tai said.

The marquee race in this battle for control over Wisconsin’s government is the gubernatorial race, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.

“It feels as though either party could win that race. And statewide races for governor have been very close in recent years, and it’s likely to set the tone for everything else on the ballot,” Burden said.

Dugan’s lawyers likely signed onto the case to send a message, says John Gross, director of the Public Defender Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “[Her lawyers are] really just the who’s who of criminal defense, federal litigators in Wisconsin,” he says.