| Venue: | WI SC |
| Facts: | The definition of "dependant" in the WI statutes governing employee trust funds excludes same-sex couples. |
| Posture: | A bunch of municipal entities petition to intervene as defendants. Dane County Cir. Ct. denies. Ct. App. affirms the denial. The legislature tries to get in on the action as well: denied. Appeal of the denial. |
| Issue: | Can these entities insert themselves into this lawsuit? |
| Holding: | No. |
| Rule: | They'd need to show how their interests relate to the subject of the action in a direct and immediate fashion. |
| Reasoning: | The judgment here would not be binding on the municipalities. It wouldn't deprive them of their home rule powers. It might affect some of their statutory or constitutional powers, but it's not going to be an award of damages taken from them or anything like that. |
| Dicta: | Butler (concurring): Every decision of the high courts is binding on all
future litigants. That doesn't get everyone into court on every
case.
Prosser (dissenting): the court is both playing with fire here (in terms of outraging the public and risking an erosion of confidence in the system), and being disingenuous about the actual effects of the eventual judgment in this suit. |