Experience

Obtained a writ of mandamus requiring Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin to call special elections in two legislative districts left vacant when the former office holders resigned to take positions in the Governor’s administration. In the process of the litigation, which lasted, in all, a little over four weeks, the case was argued before two different judges and presented to three different courts (two judges in the circuit court and a court of appeals). At each stage, the courts ruled in favor of the eight Wisconsin voters on whose behalf the case was filed, culminating in an order issued by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, which, in denying Governor Walker’s request for an extension of time to comply with the writ of mandamus, wrote: “We … disagree with the Governor’s assertion that the special elections ‘are an unnecessary waste of taxpayer resources and confusing to voters.’ . . . Representative government and the election of our representatives are never ‘unnecessary,’ [and] never a ‘waste of taxpayer resources’”. Governor Walker complied with the court order and called the special elections on March 29, 2018.