How Appealing



Saturday, January 30, 2016

“State seeks to preserve lifetime GPS monitoring of sex offender”: Earlier this month, Bruce Vielmetti of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an article that begins, “Wisconsin tried Friday to persuade a federal appeals court to reverse a judge’s decision that lifetime GPS monitoring of some sex offenders violates the constitution.”

Also earlier this month, Wisconsin Public Radio reported that “Lifetime GPS Monitoring Of Sex Offenders At Issue In Federal Case; State Argues To Appeals Court That Lifetime Monitoring Isn’t A Form Of Punishment.”

And The Associated Press reported earlier this month that “Court considers challenge to lifetime GPS monitoring for some sex offenders in Wisconsin.”

Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion holding that a Wisconsin law that requires lifetime GPS monitoring of a formerly civilly committed sex offender, who committed multiple sex offenses against children, neither violates the Fourth Amendment nor constitutes an unconstitutional ex post facto law. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner wrote the majority opinion. And Circuit Judge Joel M. Flaum issued an opinion concurring in the judgment.

The appeal was orally argued on January 8, 2016. You can access the oral argument audio via this link (17.9 MB mp3 audio file). And the Wisconsin Department of Justice has posted online the opposing parties’ principal briefs here and here.

Posted at 1:07 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court reinstates Kountze cheerleader religious-message lawsuit”: Chuck Lindell of The Austin American-Statesman has an article that begins, “In a case that has become a rallying cry for leading state Republicans and conservative Christians, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday reinstated a lawsuit by Kountze cheerleaders seeking to protect their use of religious messages during football games.”

Bobby Blanchard of The Dallas Morning News has a blog post titled “Texas high court reinstates lawsuit over cheerleaders with religious messaging.”

Reuters reports that “Texas Supreme Court sides with cheerleaders on ‘Bible banners.’

The Associated Press reports that “Texas top court sides with cheerleaders in Bible banner suit.”

And The Texas Tribune reports that “Cheerleader Case Can Proceed, State Supreme Court Rules.”

Yesterday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Texas consisted of the opinion of the court and two concurring opinions (here and here).

Posted at 9:20 AM by Howard Bashman