Marketplace Today Blog

By Bruce Vielmetti
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin legislator yelling the loudest about restricting public access to the state’s online court records admits he hasn’t gotten nearly the complaints about the current system as he claimed, the Associated Press reports.

Rep. Marlin Schneider (D–Wisconsin Rapids) wants to restrict the popular service, known as CCAP, to only records of people who have been convicted of crimes, not those that are only pending or have been dismissed or ended in acquittals. He said he sought the changes because hundreds of people had told him tales of how information from CCAP prevented them from renting homes or getting jobs.

But Schneider fessed up after the Associated Press requested copies of all complaints he had received about CCAP. The total, over four years, was 59 — and only 22 were from people who had had criminal charges dismissed.