Lynn S. Adelman

Lynn S. Adelman (born October 1, 1939) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, serving since 1997.[1]

Lynn Adelman
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
Incumbent
Assumed office December 23, 1997
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Thomas John Curran
Member of the Wisconsin Senate from the 28th district
In office January 1977 – December 23, 1997
Preceded by	James Devitt
Succeeded by	Mary Lazich
Personal details
Born	Lynn S. Adelman October 1, 1939 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Princeton University (AB ) Columbia University (LLB)

Education and early career

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Adelman received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Princeton University in 1961, and a Bachelor of Laws from Columbia Law School in 1965. He was a research assistant at Columbia from 1965 to 1966. He was a trial attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Wisconsin from 1967 to 1968, and then entered private practice in Milwaukee in 1968.[2]

Political career

Adelman ran for Congress unsuccessfully three times, in 1974 in the general election, and in primaries in 1982 and in 1984 in a special election.[3] He was a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Senate from 1977-97.[4] Adelman was also on the Judiciary committee, Alcohol and Drug Abuse committee, and the Highway Safety committee for the Wisconsin State Senate.[5]

Federal judicial service

Upon the recommendation of United States Senators from Wisconsin Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold,[5] Adelman was nominated by President Bill Clinton on September 8, 1997, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin vacated by Judge Thomas John Curran. He received a hearing by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on October 29, 1997.[5] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 13, 1997, and received his commission on December 23, 1997.[2]

Frank, et al vs Walker

The Wisconsin Voter ID law was a law passed by then Wisconsin governor Scott Walker in 2011.[5] This law made voters of Wisconsin to show a state-issue photo ID at the voters polls, before the Wisconsin voters can even photo.[5] The reasoning behind this law was that Scott Walker wanted to stop the voter fraud that was allegedly happening within the state of Wisconsin.[5] Adelman ruled, on April 29, 2014, that this law violated the fourteenth amendment and thus the law was unconstitutional.[5] Adelman made this ruling because in the trial he saw no evidence of voter fraud and concluded that the law was unfair to minority voters because "Blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to lack an ID".[5]

Johnny Kimble vs Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development, et al.

In this case Johnny Kimble sued former Equal Rights Division Secretary Sheehan Donoghue for not giving him a pay raise based on his race and gender.[5] The Equal Rights Division job is to investigate discrimination claims and to judge whether the claim of discrimination is true.[5] Johnny Kimble is an ex employee of the Equal Rights Division and ran the office in Milwaukee.[6] Sheehan Donoghue was appointed to this position in 1991 by then governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson.[5] Adelman's ruling on this case was that Johnny Kimble was denied pay raises because of his race and that the Department of Workforce Development was to pay Johnny Kimble what he lost.[5] This ruling was made on February 25, 2010.[5] Adelman said that Sheehan Donoghue made statements that contradicted to what she said and what other witnesses said, she also got defensive and evasive during the questioning, and the evidence on the case did not support her claims.[7] The evidence they found was when the Milwaukee office did well she credited the office, not Johnny, but when the Madison office did well she credited the section chief, who was white.[6] Also, whenever Johnny said they need technical support she ignored him, but when it was a white employee, she promised help.[6]

St. Augustine School v. Evers

In June 2017, Adelman found that Tony Evers, then Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, did not violate the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause nor its Establishment Clause when he denied bussing to an independent catholic school because there was a nearby archdiocesan school.[8] In his opinion, Adelman utilized references to the Wikipedia articles on Traditionalist Catholic and Montessori education.[9] His judgment was affirmed by a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in October 2018.[10]

United States vs. Sujata Sachdeva

In this trial Koss Corporation's Chief Financial Advisor Sujata Sachdeva is charged with embezzling $34 million from the company.[5] The other person involved on the embezzlement is Julie Mulvaney who was a senior accountant at Koss Corporation.[7] The Koss Corporation is a manufacturer of headphones.[5] Sachdeva used almost all of the $34 million she embezzled, from the Koss Corporation, to go on a wild shopping spree.[5] The shopping spree consisted of shopping at designer, jewelry, department stores, and other high-end retailers.[7] Sachdeva, along with Mulvaney, tried to cover up the embezzlement by creating false accounting records. Mulvaney created falsified journal records to cover Sachdeva's spending spree.[7] Sachdeva's attorney's argued that Sachdeva was is mentally ill with alcoholism, diagnosed bipolar disorder, and a shopping addiction, when she went on the shopping spree.[5] The sentence the federal prosecutor wanted was 15–20 years in prison, and the lawyers for Sachdeva wanted the sentenced reduce to 6–7 years in prison, because of her mental condition.[5] Adelman sentenced Sachdeva to 11 years in federal prison on November 17, 2010.[5] Adelman gave some leniency to Sachdeva because of her cooperation with the FBI.[5]

United States vs. William White

This case is about William White, White is a Neo-Nazi who runs the Virginia-based American Nationalist Socialist Workers Party.[5] White posted the address, name, and telephone numbers of a juror in Chicago who convicted a white supremacist, in 2004, to his website.[6] The prosecutors claimed that White did this in hopes that the juror would be harmed for the conviction of the white supremacist.[5] Adelman at first dismissed the indictment of White, because he did not threaten or actually caused harm to the man and he obtained the information legally, and that what White did was covered over the First Amendment.[5] This judgement by Adelman was overturned and White went on to trail and was convicted by a jury in Chicago.[5] After this sentencing Adelman reversed it for the same reasons he dismissed the case in the first place. Then on February 20, 2013, Adelman did sentence White to three and half years in prison for soliciting violence to a juror.[5] When this sentencing happened, White was already in jail for other threats and intimidation practices.[5]

Criticism of the Supreme Court under John Roberts

In February 2020, Adelman wrote an article criticizing the recent record of the Supreme Court of the United States under Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. The article singled out Chief Justice Roberts and accused him of actively participating in "undermining American democracy," through activist decisions on voting rights and campaign finance by corporate interests. Adelman wrote, "Instead of doing what it can to ensure the maintenance of a robust democratic republic, the Court's decisions ally it with the most anti-democratic currents in American politics, forces that would be pleased if unlimited money could be spent on elections and if minorities could be deterred from voting."

The article specifically cited a number of partisan 5-4 decisions, such as Shelby County v. Holder, (which struck down part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965), Rucho v. Common Cause, (which decided that federal courts could not rule on cases of gerrymandering), Citizens United v. FEC, (which allowed unlimited corporate spending on elections), and Janus v. AFSCME (which held that it was unconstitutional for public employee unions to require collective bargaining fees). The article created waves in legal circles because of the unusually blunt criticism of the Court coming from a sitting federal judge.[11][12] Legal scholar Jonathan Turley argued that the article makes "a better case of bias against himself than he does Chief Justice John Roberts" and noted previous articles where Adelman had also directly criticized conservatives while serving as a federal judge.[13] The Judicial Counsel for the Seventh Circuit censured Judge Adelman for writing this article.[14]

Consideration for Seventh Circuit

On January 22, 2010, United States Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold forwarded four names to the Obama White House for consideration to fill the vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit created when Judge Terence T. Evans assumed senior status.[15] Adelman was recommended along with Victoria F. Nourse, Richard Sankovitz and Dean Strang,[15] but was not selected for the spot.

Electoral history

U.S. House of Representatives (1974)

Wisconsin's Ninth Congressional District Election, 1974[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election, September 10, 1974
	Republican	Robert W. Kasten, Jr.	22,749	31.59%
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman	18,201	25.27%
	Republican	Glenn Robert Davis (incumbent)	17,054	23.68%
	Democratic	G. Sam Davis	12,000	16.66%
	American	William D. Quirk	77	0.11%
Total votes			'72,014'	'100.0%'
General Election, November 5, 1974
	Republican	Robert W. Kasten, Jr.	77,733	52.25%	-8.59%
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman	66,071	44.41%	+8.07%
	American	William D. Quirk	3,037	2.04%	+0.13%
Total votes			'148,774'	'100.0%'	-29.41%
	Republican hold

Wisconsin Senate (1976, 1980)

Wisconsin Senate, 28th District Election, 1976[17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election, September 14, 1976
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman	4,145	38.88%
	Republican	James C. Devitt (incumbent)	2,760	25.89%
	Republican	John Alberts	2,212	20.75%
	Republican	Rasmus Kalnes	1,545	14.49%
Total votes			'10,662'	'100.0%'
General Election, November 2, 1976
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman	45,439	66.24%
	Republican	James C. Devitt (incumbent)	23,158	33.76%
Total votes			'68,597'	'100.0%'
	Democratic gain from Republican

Wisconsin Senate, 28th District Election, 1980[18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election, September 9, 1980
	Republican	Joseph E. Wimmer	9,395	73.54%
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman (incumbent)	3,381	26.46%
Total votes			'12,776'	'100.0%'
General Election, November 4, 1980
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman (incumbent)	44,330	54.65%	-11.59%
	Republican	Joseph E. Wimmer	36,786	45.35%
Total votes			'81,116'	'100.0%'	+18.25%
	Democratic hold

U.S. House of Representatives (1982, 1984)

Wisconsin's Fourth Congressional District Election, 1982[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election, September 14, 1982
	Democratic	Clement J. Zablocki (incumbent)	56,047	60.60%
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman	36,102	39.04%
	Libertarian	Nicholas P. Youngers	223	0.24%
style="background-color: CC0C2F; width: 5px;" |	Constitution	John Gudenschwager	111	0.12%
Total votes			'92,483'	'100.0%'
General Election, November 2, 1982
	Democratic	Clement J. Zablocki (incumbent)	129,557	94.58%
	Libertarian	Nicholas P. Youngers	4,064	2.97%
style="background-color: CC0C2F; width: 5px;" |	Constitution	John Gudenschwager	946	0.69%
	Independent	John F. Baumgartner	2,421	1.77%
Total votes			'136,988'	'100.0%'
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin's Fourth Congressional District Special Election, 1984[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election, February 21, 1984
	Democratic	Gerald D. Kleczka	33,384	28.91%
	Democratic	E. Michael McCann	27,614	23.91%
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman	27,279	23.62%
	Democratic	Gary J. Barczak	15,827	13.70%
	Republican	Robert V. Nolan	7,742	6.70%
	Democratic	James Paul Buckley	1,149	0.99%
	Democratic	Roman R. Blenski	859	0.74%
	Republican	John F. Baumgartner	717	0.62%
	Republican	Ray Derringer	598	0.52%
	Republican	Joseph A. Ortiz	316	0.27%
Total votes			'115,485'	'100.0%'
General Election, April 3, 1984
	Democratic	Gerald D. Kleczka	76,384	65.07%
	Republican	Robert V. Nolan	41,007	34.93%
Total votes			'117,391'	'100.0%'
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Senate (1984)

Wisconsin Senate, 28th District Election, 1984[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election, September 11, 1984
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman (incumbent)	3,862	49.15%
	Republican	Raymond J. Gray	1,432	18.22%
	Republican	James Gary Maas	1,182	15.04%
	Republican	Orville G. Martin	871	11.08%
	Republican	Michael P. Levitch	511	6.50%
Total votes			'7,858'	'100.0%'
General Election, November 6, 1984
	Democratic	Lynn S. Adelman (incumbent)	41,690	64.85%	+10.20%
	Republican	Raymond J. Gray	22,596	35.15%
Total votes			'64,286'	'100.0%'	-20.75%
	Democratic hold

References

1. "Lynn Adelman | Eastern District of Wisconsin | United States District Court". Wied.uscourts.gov. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
2. "Adelman, Lynn S. - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
3. "Adelman faces near-record campaign debts", The Milwaukee Journal, July 26, 1984.
4. Wisconsin History - Lynn S. Adelman, wisconsinhistory.org. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
5. "Lynn Adelman". Ballotpedia. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
6. Vielmetti, Bruce (March 8, 2010). "State equal-rights officials suffered discrimination, court rules". Journal Sentinel. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
7. "Sujata Sachdeva and Julie Mulvaney". www.sec.gov. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
8. , Recent Case: Seventh Circuit Holds Denial of Busing to Catholic School Under Wisconsin Statute Does Not Violate Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 2344 (2019)
9. St. Augustine School v. Evers, 276 F. Supp. 3d 890 (E.D. Wis. 2017).
10. St. Augustine School v. Evers, 906 F.3d 591 (7th Cir. 2018).
11. Barbash, Fred (March 11, 2020). "'Assault on Democracy': A sitting federal judge takes on John Roberts, Trump and Republicans". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
12. Adelman, Lynn (February 18, 2020). "The Roberts Court's Assault on Democracy". Social Science Research Network. Retrieved March 11, 2020. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
13. Turley, Jonathan (March 14, 2020). "Judge attacking conservatives spotlights bias in court system". The Hill. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
14. Judicial Council of the Seventh Judicial Circuit June 22, 2020.
15. Adam Korbitz, Kohl, Feingold forward four names to President Obama for Seventh Circuit, State Bar of Wisconsin (January 25, 2010). Archived February 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
16. Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1975). "Elections in Wisconsin". The state of Wisconsin 1975 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 802, 822. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
17. Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1977). "Elections in Wisconsin". The state of Wisconsin 1977 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 888, 910. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
18. Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1981). "Elections in Wisconsin". The state of Wisconsin 1981-1982 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 890, 912. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
19. Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1983). "Elections in Wisconsin". The state of Wisconsin 1983-1984 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 882, 904. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
20. Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1985). "Elections in Wisconsin". The state of Wisconsin 1985-1986 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 899, 903, 918, 922. Retrieved March 11, 2020.

Sources

• Lynn S. Adelman at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.