Bygone Justice

As SCOWstats ranges back into Wisconsin’s past, beyond the point of living memory, cases turn up more frequently with the aura of curiosities. Perhaps the facts seem quaint, the issues remote, or the analysis surprising—at any rate, the litigation evokes a different era. This “bygone justice” series offers a sample divided into two collections. Marriage and divorce cases proved sufficiently interesting and numerous to fill one group, leaving a broad array of other topics to populate the second. Although the issues in these cases may be recognizable, something about the disputes or the justices’ thinking feels distant—an inevitable consequence of time passing. Indeed, perusing these sources may tempt one to ponder which cases currently before the supreme court will appear strange, humorous, or regrettable to observers peering back at us a hundred years hence.