Wis. Supreme Court justice questioned on key votes

[Judi Lynn]

4. More recent info. on Justice Gableman's generous right-wing patron, Michael Best & Friedrich:

Lawyers caught mapping and then getting plain silly
By Dominique Paul Noth
Editor, Milwaukee Labor Press
Posted December 2, 2011

On Wall Street it’s called insider trading. In retail circles, it’s “bait and switch.” There may not be a similar term in legal circles, but it’s time to coin one, given the behavior of Michael Best & Friedrich.

The law firm shared $400,000 in taxpayer money when hired to create a redistricting plan for the state legislature and the congressional districts. It heeded its GOP masters, designing new districts that so strongly favor continuing Republican control that many Democrats don’t expect to win -- if the new maps survive both federal and state court challenges of considerable weight.

But there was one explicit line in the redistricting bill vetted by these lawyers “with respect to special or recall elections.” The law would apply “to offices filled or contested concurrently with the 2012 general election."

But then Michael Best etc pretended those words weren’t there. Whatever its past reputation for quiet maneuvering, it had become the definition of chutzpah – the kid who kills his parents and then pleads to the judge for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan.

More:
http://www.milwaukeelabor.org/in_the_news/article.cfm?n_id=00214