The Court granted certiorari and consolidated three cases presenting identical questions in different factual permutations: Question presented (Birchfield v. North Dakota); (Beylund v. Levi); (Bernard v. Minnesota): Whether, in the absence of a warrant, a State may make it a crime for a person to refuse to take a chemical test to detect the presence of… Read more
admin
Question presented: Is there a common law “special circumstances” exception to the Prison Litigation Reform Act that relieves an inmate of his mandatory obligation to exhaust administrative remedies when the inmate erroneously believes that he satisfied exhaustion by participating in an internal investigation? Lower court opinion: Blake v. Ross, 787 F.3d 693 (4th Cir. 2015) Docket… Read more
Appellate Division Director, Jeremy Perri, guest posts on the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent adoption of Rules Petition 15-02, which authorizes clerks of circuit court to electronically transmit the record on appeal to the appellate court. This rule takes effect July 1, 2016. Since January 1, 2013, circuit court clerks have been able to discard a record… Read more
Adams County DHHS v. D.S., 2015AP1937, District 4, 12/10/2015 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity D.S. appeals the termination of her parental rights to her daughter, raising a substantive due process challenge to the jury’s finding of unfitness and contending that the circuit court erroneously found termination to be in the child’s best interest. Continuing CHIPS was… Read more
State v. Larry J. Smith, 2016 WI App 8; case activity Ordinarily, “the third time’s a charm.” But here, with its third decision rejecting a Daubert challenge to expert testimony, the court of appeals triple underscores just how flexible the test really is. The decision also addresses a vouching issue. The State charged Smith with repeated sexual… Read more
State v. David Aaron Piggue, Jr., 2016 WI App 13; case activity (including briefs) Under State v. Floyd, 2000 WI 14, 232 Wis. 2d 767, ¶¶14-18, 25-27, 606 N.W.2d 155, a defendant is entitled to sentence credit for time in custody on charges that are dismissed and read-in for sentencing purposes. The court of appeals declines… Read more
Not revered. Reversed! Gannett Wisconsin does it again. Last week they gave us a a searchable database for comparing the sentences Wisconsin’s judges impose for certain types of crimes. Click here. This week they offer a searchable database for determining how often circuit court judges were reversed on appeal during 2010-2014. Click here for this… Read more
On a bypass petition; case activity (including briefs) Issues (from the appellant’s brief): Does a circuit court lack subject matter jurisdiction to enter an OWI 1st offense civil judgment if a defendant has a prior unknown out-of-state OWI conviction? Is a municipality legally precluded from pursuing a civil OWI citation if the defendant could also be… Read more
