John Fund "An End to Wisconsin Nice? Voter Fraud and Voter Anger" April 1, 2011 and March 31

John Fund, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, will speak on "An End to Wisconsin Nice? Voter Fraud and Voter Anger" at an April 1, 2011 Noon luncheon at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, 757 North Broadway, presented by the Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter.

For more information on attending, see the reservation form.

Mr. Fund was the featured speaker at our chapter events on October 8, 2008 and January 26, 2001.


Update: The Madison Lawyers Chapter will also present Mr. Fund speaking on the same topic, Thursday, March 31, 2011, 5:00–6:30 p.m. 5:30-7:00 p.m., in the Lake Dining Room of the Madison Club, 5 East Wilson Street, Madison, Wisconsin. The cost is $20.00, which includes hors d’oeuvres and two drinks. For the Madison event, RSVP by Monday, March 28th to Andrew Cook by email or by telephone (608) 219-4632.

Substantive Due Process

New article in the Yale Law Review on substantive due process.

Mandatest destiny

In a letter to the editor in the April 7, 2011 issue of The New York Review of Books, Professor Francis Barry McCarthy of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law defends the constitutionality of the individual mandate by analogy, concluding,

It would be a very odd body of constitutional law if the federal government could make a person act by serving in the military, perhaps at the cost of his life, but be unable to make him do something that affects interstate commerce by simply requiring him to purchase health insurance.

View from across the water

David Dayen at the FDL* News Desk (Wednesday 4:54pm) on "potential implications" of the State Senate's vote that day on the collective bargaining bill, including the

Supreme Court fight. The matchup between David Prosser (R) and JoAnn Kloppenberg (D) for the state Supreme Court on April 5 just got very interesting. It’s a statewide vote, and the balance of power on the state Supreme Court is at stake. Right now there are 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats on the court, but one of those Republicans is Prosser. Expect lots of organizing and millions of dollars poured into this election, which is much like a political election, with debates and everything. If Democrats win, the legality of what took place tonight may be put in greater question.

(via KausFiles)

*FireDogLake, not Fond du lac

Super Quorums under the Wisconsin Constitution

By James Lindgren of the Northwestern University - School of Law, at SSRN. From the Abstract:

The Wisconsin attorney general in 1971 gave a formal opinion to the legislature that a bill that changed collective bargaining rights substantially was not fiscal in nature and was not subject to the three-fifths super quorum provision. Because collective bargaining rights and that very statutory chapter (ch. 111) are at the heart of the proposed Senate Bill 11, the most controversial portions of the bill could be passed constitutionally with just a simple majority of elected members present, without a three-fifths quorum.

(via InstaPundit)