Patti Wenzel

What Snarlin’ Marlin doesn’t want you to know

By - Sep 18th, 2009 12:38 am
Rep. Marlin Schneider (D-Stevens Point)

Rep. Marlin Schneider (D-Stevens Point)

If the Wisconsin State Assembly is in session, there’s a safe bet that Rep. Marlin Schneider (D-Stevens Point) is attempting to restrict the public’s access to government records. In a “here we go again” moment, Schneider has introduced legislation that will restrict the dissemination and acquisition of information on the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access website, for the third time in less than ten years.

CCAP is a great little tool that allows lawyers, law enforcement officials, journalists, employers, landlords and anyone with access to the Internet to find all criminal or civil cases that have been filed, currently active or closed in the state of Wisconsin. Enter a name and a birthdate (if available), and you can find out if a person has been charged with a crime, been the subject of a lawsuit and the ultimate disposition of the case. No more driving to the county courthouse to follow the paper trail.

Schneider has been trying to close this door to transparency in government for years, offering a number of reasons for waging this battle. He claimed that employers use the service to discriminate against potential employees, that landlords use it to deny renters a home, and by nosey neighbors, lonely hearts and nervous parents seeking information about babysitters, potential suitors or the guy across the alley.

His main argument is that even in such cases where a person may have been taken to court and found ‘not guilty,’ the presence of this information on the site can tarnish a person’s image or may easily be misread by those skimming through the information quickly.
But I think Schneider is really embarassed that you and I can put his name in the CCAP search engine and find out that he has a $65,000 judgment against him from a personal injury lawsuit filed in 1999.

Not so. Schneider says he is trying to protect that constituent who shares a name with a violent felon. He says a person’s livelihood could be damaged because potential employers use CCAP to run background checks and would carelessly assume his “John Doe” and “John Doe the Felon” are the same person.

In recent years, the director of the state courts has added notices to the site explaining to employers the proper use of the information, along with links to common legal terminology and a disclaimer concerning accuracy. The site even places warnings and large notices on those charges that have been dismissed or judged not guilty.

But Snarlin’ Marlin says this is not enough. He believes the populace of Wisconsin is too dumb to understand English and too mean to fairly judge a potential employee or renter.

He has attempted to restrict access to the public before; he wanted it to be available to the courts, law enforcement and journalists only. But in his opinion, those who pay for government, which is exactly what the civil and criminal courts are, should be barred from the site.  Although the assembly leadership refused to schedule his bill two years ago, he’s back again, but with some new twists.

First, his bill would bar court officials from posting records, unless there is a guilty criminal verdict, a finding of liability in a civil case, an eviction, or a restraining order issued.  It would also allow those found not guilty or not liable to have their case information removed with a written request.

Schneider would still allow  jurists, police and journalists access to CCAP, but those nosy taxpayers who own businesses, rent apartments or place their children in the care of another would have to pay $10 annually and register with the state to see the computerized records.

Talk about flying in the face of the state Constitution!

Wisconsin statute 19.31 reads: “It is declared to be the public policy of this state that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.”

The Wisconsin Constitution further states (and is backed with numerous legal decisions) that requests for open, free government records are to be available to all who seek it out.

Poor Marlin. That damn constitution continues to thwart his attempts to shroud the public’s right to know.

Categories: Commentary, Politics, VITAL

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month. Learn more.

Join now and cancel anytime.

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us