Title: Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Scott Walker

State: wisconsin

Issuer: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Document:

2014 WI 117 
 
OFFICE OF THE CLERK 
 
 
 
 
110 EAST MAIN STREET, SUITE 215 
P.O. BOX 1688 
MADISON, WI   53701-1688   
 
TELEPHONE (608) 266-1880 
FACSIMILE (608) 267-0640 
Web Site:  www.wicourts.gov 
 
 
 
 
 
October 22, 2014
To:   
 
Hon. David T. Flanagan III 
Circuit Court Judge 
215 South Hamilton, Br. 12, Rm. 8107 
Madison, WI 53703 
 
Carlo Esqueda 
Clerk of Circuit Court 
215 South Hamilton, Rm. 1000 
Madison, WI 53703 
 
Maria S. Lazar 
Clayton Patrick Kawski 
Asst. Attorney General 
P.O. Box 7857 
Madison, WI 53707-7857 
 
Michael D. Fischer 
Thomas Claire Kamenick 
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty 
1139 E. Knapp St. 
Milwaukee, WI 53202-2828 
 
Aaron N. Halstead 
Hawks Quindel, S.C. 
P.O. Box 2155 
Madison, WI 53701-2155 
 
*Additional Addressees listed on Page 3 
  
You are hereby notified that the Court has entered the following order:   
 
 
No. 2012AP1652 
Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Scott Walker  L.C.#2011CV5492 
 
Combined emergency motions for enlargement of time and for reconsideration of the 
court’s July 31, 2014 opinion and order pursuant to Wis. Stat. §§ (Rules) 809.82(2)(a) were filed 
by plaintiffs-respondents, Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP, et al., on September 19, 2014.  The 
court notes that the time to move for reconsideration expired on August 20, 2014, see § (Rule) 
809.64, Stats., and the record in this matter was remitted to the circuit court on September 3, 
2014.  In addition, the court notes that on October 9, 2014, the United States Supreme Court 
issued an order vacating the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ stay of the district court’s 
permanent injunction of Wisconsin’s voter ID law.  Thus, in addition to being untimely, the 
plaintiffs-respondents’ motion for reconsideration has now been rendered moot.  
 
IT IS ORDERED that the motion for enlargement of time is denied and the motion for 
reconsideration is dismissed as moot.  
 
Page 2 
October 22, 2014 
No. 2012AP1652 
Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Scott Walker  L.C.#2011CV5492 
 
 
 
SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, C.J. (dissenting).   The emergency request for 
reconsideration of this court’s order in the previously stayed (and then “unstayed”) voter ID law 
is not moot and should not be dismissed at this time.  The legality and implementation of the 
voter ID law are very much alive and important to the people of the state, even though the 
majority of this court apparently wishes the matter would go away. 
 
The time to file such a motion in this court is not jurisdictional.  Ordinarily, however, a 
request for a stay is not granted when the record has been remitted to the circuit court.  See 
Lobermeier v. Gen. Tel. Co., 120 Wis. 2d 419, 355 N.W.2d 531 (1984); Pierce v. Kelly, 39 
Wis. 2d 568 (1876); Ogilvie v. Richardson, 14 Wis. 157 (1860) (“When cases have been once 
decided here, and regularly remitted after the time to move for a rehearing has expired, the 
function of this court with respect to those cases is exhausted.  If we should entertain these 
motions now, we see no reason why it might not be done at any indefinite time hereafter; and 
thus parties could never know when their cases were determined.”). 
 
There are exceptions to this rule that the court not grant reconsideration after remittitur of 
the record.  The present case falls within an exception to the remittitur rule:  The issue before the 
court is not final.  On October 9, 2014, the United States Supreme Court issued an order blocking 
implementation of the Wisconsin voter ID law for the November election. 
 
Furthermore, the court has options:  This court may order the record returned from the 
trial court or may recast the motion to stay as an original action.  See State ex rel. Ozanne v. 
Fitzgerald, 2011 WI 43, 334 Wis. 2d 70, 798 N.W.2d 436. 
 
To illustrate that the voter ID matter is not final and is fluid, I note that it has been 
reported that Wisconsin Attorney General Van Hollen intended to repair the problem of absentee 
ballots having been sent to voters without notification of the ID requirement.  The implication in 
the U.S. Supreme Court order (at least as hinted by the dissent) is that the absentee ballot issue 
caused the U.S. Supreme Court to stay implementation of the voter ID law.  Apparently the 
emergency rule adopted to render the voter ID law constitutional was, as of yesterday, still in 
flux. 
 
It is now reported that the Attorney General will not take steps to repair the absentee 
ballots issue. 
 
Retaining the fully briefed request for a stay, instead of dismissing it, allows this court to 
be prepared, if necessary, to rule on a stay of implementing the new voter ID law should 
circumstances change (as they have several times over the past few weeks). 
 
For the reasons set forth, I do not think the request for a stay is moot, and I dissent from 
the dismissal of the motion at this time. 
 
 
Diane M. Fremgen 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
Page 3 
October 22, 2014 
No. 2012AP1652 
Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Scott Walker  L.C.#2011CV5492 
 
 
 
*Additional Addressees: 
 
Michael T. Morley 
223 Pawnee Road 
Cranford, NJ 07016 
 
Richard Saks 
B. Michele Sumara 
Hawks Quindel, S.C. 
P.O. Box 442 
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0442 
 
James R. Troupis 
Sarah E. Troupis 
Troupis Law Office, LLC 
4126 Timber Lane 
Cross Plains, WI 53528 
 
Helen M. Dicks 
AARP 
222 W. Washington Avenue, Ste. 600 
Madison, WI 53703-3745 
 
Daniel B. Kohrman 
AARP Foundation Litigation 
601 E. Street, NW, Room B4-454 
Washington, DC 20049 
 
Kristin M. Kerschensteiner 
Disability Rights Wisconsin 
131 W. Wilson St., #700 
Madison, WI 53703 
 
Rebecca Kathryn Mason 
Rebecca Mason Law LLC 
704 Park Avenue 
Racine, WI 53403 
 
Joseph Louis Olson 
Michael Best & Friedrich LLP 
100 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Ste. 3300 
Milwaukee, WI 53202-4124