One complication is that much of the record in the various challenges remains sealed because of a secrecy order issued by Peterson. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, while agreeing to take up the cases, highlighted the problem of secrecy in her concurring opinion, writing that the public should have access to as much information about the cases as possible.

“Some documents have been disclosed to some of the participants but not to other participants,” she wrote, detailing the potential complications. “These issues may be down the road a piece, but now is the time to think about the road we are constructing and where it will ultimately lead.”

Justice David Prosser agreed in his concurring opinion that the amount of sealed documents creates an “enormous problem” including “the ‘facts’ upon which the parties and this court may rely.” Prosser wrote that the court should hear the appeals, but he said combining them into a single matter for argument and briefing was a mistake.

“These matters are important to the people of Wisconsin,” he wrote. “They require the court’s best effort and they require the best effort of all counsel. The present order is so complex that it makes ‘best effort’ by anyone nearly impossible.”