Please provide a brief description of your professional background and your legislative district.
I represent the diverse 81st Assembly District, which includes northeast Madison and northwestern Dane County. Having recently turned 30, I’m the youngest legislator in Wisconsin.
Prior to winning my seat, I spent four years as Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, the political leader of the reproductive rights movement. There, I developed and implemented the organization's efforts to expand contraception access through state and local legislation, including Madison's landmark emergency contraception ordinance. I also helped oversee the passage of Wisconsin’s first pro-choice bill in a generation, the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act, which ensures that women have the option of emergency birth control after a rape.
I graduated magna cum laude from UW Law School, where I participated in the Innocence Project, and got my B.A. magna cum laude from NYU in Politics, Drama, and Cultural Studies.
How has your legal career/legal studies shaped your experience in the state legislature?
Ideally, legal training gives lawyers the ability to carefully craft and analyze proposed legislation. Lobbyist-driven or reactionary legislation is sometimes ill-considered, poorly written, or likely to have significant unforeseen consequences. A careful reading of the statutory language is essential to identifying these problems and either re-drafting or abandoning the idea.
I think my legal training gives me credibility with colleagues – I often get questions about legislation that may impact criminal law or civil rights, for example. I also get asked about less accessible issues like appellate process or jury instructions. As a new lawmaker, I am grateful for my familiarity with the statutes and the lawmaking process even as I am constantly learning new things!
Most importantly, legal training provides that critical philosophical underpinning for the endeavor of legislating. I try not to lose sight of fundamental principles in the day-to-day political fights – and my legal training reminds me to ask those big questions. What are my roles as a legislator? How should power be allocated between state and local governments? What limits are necessary on government action? On private action?
What current pieces of legislation are you working on that might be of interest to the State Bar of Wisconsin?
One timely proposal is my Smart Furlough Bill, which would maximize taxpayer savings by modifying Gov. Doyle’s blanket furlough policy. Under the current regime, virtually all state employees must to take 16 days of unpaid furlough. My bill would change that policy to exempt furloughs that do not result in a savings to state taxpayers – federally funded workers, for instance, would be exempt, as would correctional workers whose furloughs are re-staffed at overtime pay rates.
Sen. Sullivan and I authored legislation to increase the statute of limitations for intentional torts to three years, as for negligent torts. I am sponsoring legislation to increase consumer protections, particularly for the most vulnerable among us: stopping predatory lending, protecting the ownership interests of mobile home park residents, and restricting toxic chemicals in baby bottles. I am also interested in corrections reform and offender re-entry policy to prevent crime and reduce recidivism, while reducing costs to taxpayers.
What would you identify as the major issues/challenges facing the justice system?
I think a general lack of understanding about the judicial system is a serious threat. People no longer have confidence in the process, thanks in part to the vicious, dishonest ads that have been run in recent Supreme Court elections. Some of these ads not only disparage lawyers for doing their ethical and legal duty, but fundamentally misrepresent the role of the judiciary in our country. I cosponsored the Impartial Justice Bill in the hopes that public financing of Supreme Court elections will help stop this disturbing trend.
Inadequate funding is one result of decreased public support. ADAs and public defenders have unmanageable caseloads, further undermining confidence in the system. Better funding would reduce turnover, encourage innovation, and ultimately make our system more effective and efficient. I serve on the State Bar’s Legal Services Committee, so I’m also concerned about lack of access to civil legal services.
Finally, we tend to spend in the wrong places – breathtaking sums on prisons, for example, but little for successful prevention, intervention, parole, treatment, or re-entry programs. We incarcerate thousands of people for minor parole violations or non-violent, addiction-related crime. The cost of the current system is robbing us of our fiscal stability, our public education and university dollars, and our ability to maintain quality public services. Our approach doesn’t make us safer – Minnesota, with similar population and crime rates, has a prison census roughly a third of ours. We must revise our re-entry policies to help ex-offenders succeed, not hope for failure, and we must get serious about treating addiction and other proven measures to reduce recidivism and increase public safety.
Rotunda Report is the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Government Relations e-newsletter that highlights legislative, judicial, and administrative developments that impact the legal profession and the justice system. It is published twice a month and is distributed free to attorneys, public officials and others who help shape public policy in Wisconsin. We invite your suggestions to make the Rotunda Report more informative and useful and we encourage you to visit our Web site for the most current information about justice-related issues.
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