Author: Scott Bauer

A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with the Democratic state attorney general on June 17 in a long-running battle over a law passed by Republicans who wanted to weaken the office in a lame duck legislative session more than six years ago. The court ruled 7-0 that requiring the attorney general to get permission from a Republican-controlled legislative committee to settle certain lawsuits was unconstitutional. The law is a separation of powers violation, the court said. The Republican-controlled Legislature convened a session in December 2018 after Democratic Governor Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul defeated Republican incumbents....

Wisconsin could go down as billionaire Elon Musk’s last big spend on a political campaign. And it was a flop. Musk, the South African oligarch and richest person in the world, said on May 20 that he would be spending less on political campaigns. The announcement came as Musk is claimed to be stepping back from his role in the Trump regime, saying he will spend more time focused on his businesses, and just seven weeks after the candidate he backed in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race lost by 10 percentage points. Democrats in the swing state said Musk’s comments...

The high-stakes race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court has gotten most of the attention leading up to the April 1 election, but it is not the only issue voters will decide when they vote. Also on the ballot is a race for the battleground state’s top education official who will guide policies affecting K-12 schools during President Donald Trump’s second term. There is also a measure that would place the state’s voter ID law into the state constitution. Both of those contests have sharp partisan divisions, even though the spending and national attention have been far less than those...

Wisconsin prosecutors filed 10 additional felony charges in December against two attorneys and an aide to President-elect Donald Trump who advised Trump in 2020 as part of a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming that the Republican had won the battleground state that year. Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised the campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, all initially faced a single felony forgery charge in Wisconsin. Those charges were filed in June. But two days before the three are scheduled for their initial court...

A judge’s overturning of Wisconsin’s 13-year-old law that effectively ended collective bargaining for teachers and most state government employees has rekindled a battle over labor rights in a state where the first public sector unions were formed 65 years ago. But before unions head back to the bargaining table, more legal fights await. Here are five things to know about the law, the current challenge and what happens next: WHAT IS THE FIGHT ABOUT? At its core, the battle is over whether tens of thousands of teachers, nurses, prison guards and other state government employees can bargain over their...