From our content partner, Channel 3000.
MADISON, Wis. — A conservative law firm is suing the City of Madison over its Police Civilian Oversight Board, saying the board’s racial diversity quotas are unconstitutional.
“The City of Madison was warned that imposing racial quotas is unconstitutional,” WILL President and General Counsel Rick Esenberg, said. “The return of race classifications and quotas is a troubling and dangerous step backwards.”
In September 2020, the Madison Common Council voted to create a civilian oversight board responsible for conducting police assessments and making recommendations about police use-of-force protocols. Four of the 11 members were required to belong to the following racial groups: African-American, Asian, Latinx and Native American. The Common Council also voted to require 50% of the board’s members be Black.
WILL filed the lawsuit on behalf of David Blaska, a white man who applied for the board but was not selected.
The lawsuit asks that the racial diversity quotas be ruled unconstitutional and that the board be reformed without any diversity requirements.
City leaders said the board’s diversity requirements were put in place to make sure communities of color had a say in how their own communities are policed.
“WILL cannot dispute that for decades communities of color have had more police contact and higher rates of incarceration than anyone else in our society,” City Attorney Mike Haas said. “This is not a case related to medical school admissions or preferential governmental contracting. It’s about ensuring safe, fair, and humane policing for everyone our community – a compelling governmental interest if ever there was one.”
WILL, which is based in Milwaukee, is the same law firm behind lawsuits targeting absentee ballot drop boxes, Dane County’s coronavirus restrictions and the state’s former mask mandate.
“WILL is developing quite a track record of cases,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. “They are against common-sense public health measures, like shutting schools when a highly contagious disease hits; they want to rip out our ballot drop boxes because they don’t like the candidates our voters are casting their ballots for; they want tear down the Civilian Oversight Board because they don’t recognize the expertise that over-policed communities bring to a conversation about over-policing.”
