Circuit Judge Doubtful Court Reporter Suit Names Right Party (1)

A Seventh Circuit judge repeatedly pressed a former Wisconsin court reporter’s attorney Friday on whether the plaintiff’s hostile work environment litigation names a “fictitious” state entity that can’t be sued.

Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit made the inquiry during oral arguments in Shannon Golat’s bid to overturn a district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Wisconsin State Court System, former Rusk County Circuit Court Judge Steven Anderson, and other officials last year in her gender-based harassment and retaliation lawsuit.

The Seventh Circuit could use this case to clarify a plaintiff’s ...