Bryna Godar

Excited to share our essay on the state constitutional limits around state court reform, now published in Northwestern U. L. Rev.:

Federal prosecutors have reportedly charged ICE officer Christian Castro with false statements after the nonfatal shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis. MN already charged Castro in state court, but TX stalled on granting the extradition request. Castro was released from TX custody last week.

This issue has been litigated for years but has remained unresolved. A court in 2022 ruled that voters could not get new ballots if a candidate later dropped out, but the court of appeals overturned that decision this year on technical grounds, without reaching the merits.

Madison police killed a man on Willy Street in the heart of the city's most self proclaimed progressive neighborhood. It's the third time it's happened in that area since 2012. @chalipittman.bsky.social and I covered the story on Wednesday. isthmus.com/news/news/fa...

Our latest explainer discusses how state criminal laws may offer an avenue for addressing some concerns about federal election interference, given that federal law also includes prohibitions on voter intimidation, armed federal officers at the polls, mail delays, and more.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office is investigating the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Colombian man by federal immigration agents Monday.

DOJ has turned over evidence to MN in the shootings of Good and Pretti after months of refusing to do so and against the backdrop of an ongoing MN lawsuit. Source says "the evidence sharing is expected to go both ways" and is "a return to longstanding norms." www.startribune.com/renee-good-a...

A week after ICE shot and killed a man in Texas, another person has been killed in Maine in a shooting involving immigration agents. Details yet to come. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Federal officers shot and killed another person this week, this time in Texas. As I've explained before, states do have jurisdiction to investigate federal shootings and bring state criminal charges if warranted: www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investi... www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/u...

What were the most consequential democracy-related court decisions of the past year? Join us on July 8 for "Year in Review: Democracy Litigation in SCOTUS and the States," featuring leading experts on election law and democracy. Register here: go.wisc.edu/62qgi8

A federal court quashed six subpoenas against MN officials, writing it had "no doubt" they "were issued for unlawful reasons" of coercing state officials to assist with immigration enforcement and "to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so." www.startribune.com/judge-quash-...

The WI Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in a second case involving the state's congressional map. This one argues that it is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The other case argues the map is an unconstitutional anti-competitive gerrymander. wisconsinexaminer.com/briefs/wisco...

Our in-depth constitutional history for New York went live yesterday. Check out 50constitutions.org/ny to explore how it has changed over time, or look up your own state's constitution! Huge shout-out to @ewylau.bsky.social for her work on this project.

Great piece from WI Justices Dallet and Hagedorn highlighting why attorneys should pay more attention to the WI Constitution and support state constitutional claims with "independent analysis grounded in the text's meaning and the context of related provisions." www.wisbar.org/NewsPublicat...

News: Minnesota's filing deadline passed this week, and no one filed to challenge either of the 2 sitting justices up for reelection this year. That guarantees new terms for Justices Sarah Hennesy and Paul Thissen, both appointees of Governor Tim Walz (& both former public defenders).

Minnesota arrested an ICE agent it charged in Texas: www.startribune.com/ice-agent-ch...

In both GA and MN, judges are supposedly elected. But in practice, "nearly every state supreme court justice steps down midterm, allowing the governor to appoint a successor instead of the state holding an open election for a new justice." Once on the court, they basically never lose re-election.

Excited to share my article, Disenfranchisement Creep, was published Friday in the Virginia Law Review! It argues that state constitutions offer an underexplored way to rein in overbroad criminal and capacity-based disenfranchisement schemes. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Social Circle, Ga., sued DHS/ICE this week over their efforts to construct a 10,000-person detention facility in the 5,000-person town, bringing claims under NEPA, the APA, and state nuisance law. I explore the viability and hurdles for such claims here: statedemocracy.law.wisc.edu/our-work/sta...

A Dane County judge yesterday ordered that the 23 absentee ballots that arrived late to Madison polling places on election day must be counted, given that they arrived late due to election officials' error rather than voter fault. www.votebeat.org/wisconsin/20...

For decades, ICE limited enforcement operations at locations like schools and hospitals. Both Trump Administrations rescinded those guidelines. @harrisonstark.bsky.social discusses states & localities’ ability to adopt their own policies in a new report: statedemocracy.law.wisc.edu/our-work/can...

And now voters have appealed to state court. Law Forward filed a suit Wednesday arguing that the rejection of the ballots is unconstitutional because the voters submitted their absentee ballots on time--it was the city that failed to transport them to polling places by 8 p.m.

Illinois police are investigating an ICE agent's fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez last summer in Chicago, months before the Minneapolis shootings. As in other cases, federal officials claimed that he drove his car into officers, but video footage instead showed him attempting to flee.

The Madison ballot saga continues: WEC voted 5-1 to order the rejection of 23 absentee ballots that arrived at polling places after 8 p.m. on Election Day, even though the city received them the day before. The commissioners cited state law, but one said she hopes the voters appeal the decision.

@bridgetlavender.bsky.social discusses the suit over NJ's law enforcement mask ban, explaining that "Federal officials do not have blanket immunity from state laws. So the question is: What laws are seeking to control them? What laws go too far?"

We're hiring! Two postings are up for a staff attorney position and a one-year fellow position @uwlawdemocracy.bsky.social (in-person and remote options available). Apply by May 14!

The second WI congressional redistricting case, claiming anti-competitive gerrymandering, was dismissed today: wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.h... The other, based on partisan gerrymandering, was dismissed last month: www.wpr.org/news/judicia... Both could now go to the WI Supreme Court.

This would be a significant change for VA and ties in with my article on state constitutional limits on criminal and capacity-based disenfranchisement, which comes out next month in (fittingly) the Virginia Law Review: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

A recent U.S. district court decision held that states can constitutionally prohibit federal agents from wearing masks, so long as they do not discriminate against them in the process. Staff Attorney Bridget Lavender explains what this means for other states who are considering their own mask bans.

Wisconsin and Arkansas already had state supreme court elections this year, but dozens more are still playing out across the country. This helpful guide includes all of them.

This is one of the lawsuits I mention in my latest report on how states and localities are pushing back on federal ICE detention facilities and other actions: statedemocracy.law.wisc.edu/our-work/sta...

While federal laws and the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause place constraints on what property-related tools states and localities can use to push back on ICE actions, this report explains that they still have some avenues for ensuring the federal government and its contractors do not overreach.

The assault charges are in keeping with a long history of state prosecutions of federal officers. Read more on that history here: statedemocracy.law.wisc.edu/our-work/can...

This is an important point in the discussion of state criminal prosecution of federal officials: possible prosecutions are not limited to the most extreme cases, like fatal shootings; they may also be available for things like trespass or, as here, kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment.

The KY S Ct today voided legislative efforts to impeach a state judge based on disagreements with her rulings. The court rejected the legislature's assertion that it could not intervene in the proceedings, writing: "This would not be co-equal. It would not be constitutional. It would be tyrannical."

The non-fatal shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis is one of three federal shootings in which Minnesota officials are suing to obtain evidence from DHS/DOJ. The other two are the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti: www.startribune.com/minnesota-of... www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/u...

Minnesota is suing the federal government to obtain evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis. The suit was filed in D.C. and argues that federal agencies have unlawfully withheld evidence. www.startribune.com/minnesota-su...

We’re excited to welcome Paul D. Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General, for the Robert W. Kastenmeier Lecture on March 25. Register for the in-person and virtual lecture: buff.ly/oznhRq4.

Interested in clerking? Check out this event to learn more about clerking in state supreme courts.

The strongest arguments against qualified immunity reform are that lawsuit costs would skyrocket and officer retention would plummet. Alex Reinert, Jim Pfander, and I studied qualified immunity reforms in Colorado and New Mexico and can report: the sky is not falling. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Join us next week for this panel!

BREAKING: Judge Patrick Schiltz in Minnesota threatens criminal contempt, if necessary, to address ICE noncompliance in an order calling out U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen's response to Schiltz's earlier questions about noncompliance with court orders. "ICE will comply with this Court's orders."

Judge Bryan in Minnesota has scheduled a combined contempt hearing in morethan two dozen immigration cases for what he says has been widespread defiance of his orders to ensure released detainees are given their confiscated property. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Join us for the next installment in our Election Matters series, "The Battle Over Mid-Decade Redistricting" on March 6, 3-4:15 pm CT. Panelists will offer an update on mid-decade redistricting and how it may impact the 2026 midterms. Register here: go.wisc.edu/95y7s8