Punting Marder

A decision came down from the Wisconsin State Supreme Court in the John Marder case today. I'm yet to sift through the 20+ page document (I'd say “sift and winnow,” but it seems somehow wrong to pay any sort of tribute to the Board of Regents with reference to this topic), but the decision amounts to a punt to the lower courts in an attempt to further ascertain what was shared in the infamous closed door meeting between the Board and the chancellor.

I'm for further fact-gathering, and it does appear that some testimony is in order here, but it also seems a shame to further drag out this monumentally sad case. There is clearly so much wrong on both sides – a professor of immensely shady proportions and a Board of Regents taken to trench coat secrecy – and yet we must now endure even more of its public exploitation as the high court's punt is returned by the lower courts.

I hesitate to blame the court, having not yet worked my way through the document, but I have no such reservations about pointing a finger at both the former professor for his veritably lewd conduct and the various regents and a certain chancellor for choosing to put their own discussions above their public charge.

And for this decision to come down now – just as the University of Wisconsin System begins to recover from panoply of other sexually-perverse scandals – surely is even more icing on an already-poisonous cake.