Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
From <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12948145"The Salt Lake Tribune: The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday named in honor of former Utah Rep. Bill Orton that would boost funding to the Law Library of Congress… “Bill Orton was a tireless advocate for the law library and this legislation is a fitting way to honor his memory,” said Rep. …
“The Legislature is looking at republishing the state budget without one of Gov. Jim Doyle’s partial vetoes because the veto violated the state constitution,” reports JS Online. Legislative leaders did not want to try to override the veto — which requires a two-thirds vote — because they didn’t want to recognize it as valid… Leadership …
The Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog features an interesting take on the debate over the usability of statutory history. The current debate centers on whether reliance on statutory history is consistent with a plain meaning analysis. Justice Roggensack has asserted, “statutory history is part of a plain meaning analysis because it is part of …
Bruce Hoesly, Revising Attorney/Code Editor at the Legislative Reference Bureau, tells me that the survey which I posted here last week on whether the Wisconsin Admin Code should go paperless generated quite a bit of response. Acknowledging this interest, he’s shared with me “a summary of what we are thinking that you can share with …
The Legislative Reference Bureau is considering changing to an Internet-based publishing system for the Wisconsin Administrative Code and Register. It may include RSS and alert features. They would be interested in hearing your opinion on this survey.
In her Wisconsin Law Journal blog, Bev Butula discusses a useful service called BillFinder which “helps you find any bill eligible for consideration in the current calendar year using either keywords and phrases or bill numbers.” As Bev notes, BillFinder is particularly useful when looking for similar legislation being considered by more than one state. …
From the Badger Herald: Wisconsin taxpayers would face more audits and revenue agents would pursue more of those who owe back taxes under a plan approved Tuesday to help close the state’s budget shortfall. The Joint Finance Committee voted 15-0, without any debate, to restore $11.8 million to the Department of Revenue’s budget that Gov. …
“A group of college reporters asked Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on Wednesday for his opinion on whether Wisconsin’s open records and meetings laws apply to University of Wisconsin System student government.” Read more at the Oshkosh Northwestern. Source: The Wheeler Report
Wisconsin Radio Network reports that “a public hearing Tuesday from the Legislature’s Committee on Personal Privacy took up a bill that would require employers to annually notify their workers of email monitoring.” The bill in question is Assembly Bill 30. From the article: “An instructor of computer networking at Madison Area Technical College spoke in …
The Wisconsin State Journal reports on a new bill (Assembly Bill 143) which would remove the open meetings law exemption for partisan caucus activities. From the bill analysis: Currently, under the open meetings law, with certain exceptions, meetings of state and local governmental bodies must be preceded by public notice, must be held in places …