On Point

Recent SCOWstats posts compared SCOW’s performance with the supreme courts of Minnesota and Iowa. This post extends the analysis to Michigan and Illinois. Find out where Wisconsin ranks when measured by productivity, opinion length, and polarization here.

Which are better: Involuntary Civil Commitment Courts or Mental Health Courts? This new article by New York University Law Professor Professor Michael Perlin compares and contrasts the two.

This one is for the appellate nerds out there. One way SCOTUS clears its docket is via Grant/Vacate/Remand orders. Empirical SCOTUS, a blog that crunches numbers on our highest court, has just examined which decisions precipitated large numbers of GVRs. If you’ve been following Johnson v. U.S., you definitely want to click here.

Seriously. Click here for the ABA’s resolution, which is aimed at celebrating the many positive contributions lawyers make to society, and click here for more on what’s in store for you today!

State v. Steven J. Schaefer, 2015AP2555-CR, District 3, 11/1/16 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)

Schaefer challenged evidence seized after he was arrested outside his home. He argued the arresting officer entered the curtilage of his home without a warrant. The court of appeals holds the area was not curtilage under the four-factor test established by United States v. Dunn, 480 U.S. 294 (1987).

State v. Curtis D. Christianson, 2015AP24400-CR, District 3, 11/1/16 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)

An officer observed Christianson deviate from his lane of traffic “numerous” times by going over the center line and fog line; some of the deviations occurred while he was driving through a construction zone that had orange barrels blocking access to the left lane. (¶¶3-5). Those observations gave the officer probable cause to stop Christianson for a traffic law violation.

State v. F.B., 2016AP497, 11/1/16, District 1 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity

F.B. seeks reversal of the circuit court’s denial of a permanent stay of his obligation to register. No briefs are available and it is difficult to tell what his argument might have been; in any case the court of appeals holds the circuit court properly exercised its discretion.

Question presented (as formulated by Scotusblog):

Whether, under the court’s First Amendment precedents, a law that makes it a felony for any person on the state’s registry of former sex offenders to “access” a wide array of websites – including Facebook, YouTube, and nytimes.com – that enable communication, expression, and the exchange of information among their users, if the site is “know[n]” to allow minors to have accounts, is permissible, both on its face and as applied to petitioner, who was convicted based on a Facebook post in which he celebrated dismissal of a traffic ticket, declaring “God is Good!”

State v. Thomas D. Dowling, 2016AP838-CR, 10/26/16, District II (one-judge; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)

This is an ineffective assistance claim against Dowling’s trial counsel for not moving to suppress evidence obtained after Dowling told police officers–whom his wife had allowed into their apartment–to leave.

County of Sheboygan v. Lee F. Kleinhans, 2016AP836, 10/26/16, District 2 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including respondent’s brief)

Lee Kleinhans appeals, pro se, from his bench trial conviction for failing to obey an official traffic sign contrary to Wis. Stat. § 346.04(2). Things never really get off the ground.