The Assignment Of Visiting Federal Judges, And A Little Wisconsin Judicial History

A decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit earlier this month, Wrenn v. District of Columbia, D.C. Cir. No. 15-7057, is a reminder of the crucial importance of crossing t's and dotting i's when it comes to the temporary assignment of federal judges to hold court outside their own districts. This situation has presented itself occasionally in Wisconsin and arises in two different ways.

Rarely, but occasionally, all the judges on the court or in the circuit will be unable to sit in a case. That happened in a bizarre case filed in 1983 by a Milwaukee lawyer, Roland J. Steinle, Jr. He sued U.S. District Judge Robert W. Warren, claiming that Judge Warren, in 1969, while Attorney General of Wisconsin, had known of and consented to a break-in of Steinle's law office by one John Forbes, whom the Seventh Circuit described as "a professional burglar and a close friend of Steinle." Steinle v. Warren, 765 F.2d 95, 99 (7th Cir. 1985). Steinle said that Forbes told him (in 1971) that the purpose of the break-in was to remove Steinle's file on his long-time client Frank Balistrieri, the reputed head of the Mafia in Milwaukee. Steinle didn't act on the story for twelve years, until five days before Balistrieri was scheduled to go to trial...