Welcome to Wisconsin!

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On Jan. 6, Gov. Doyle vetoed a bill that would have held manufacturers liable for damages caused only by products they'd made, in most cases. Without the bill, manufacturers that once produced lead paint, for example, can be held liable in Wisconsin for virtually any lead poisoning--a plaintiff doesn't need to prove that the paint was made by the manufacturer, or even that his lead poisoning was caused by paint, as opposed to, say, lead-contaminated soil or lead pipes.
First, the balance of power in the closely divided Wisconsin Supreme Court shifted after Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle appointed a liberal to a vacant seat on the bench. The reconstituted court quickly handed down several rulings that alarmed the business and medical communities. Second, while the Republican-controlled state Legislature passed a number of bills to temper the effects of these rulings, the governor vetoed three such measures in the past few months, and Republicans don't have the votes to override these vetoes.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110007832

Three key legal issues are at stake in this election as a result of the governor's vetoes. The first relates to the admissibility of expert testimony in court. Under Wisconsin law, such testimony is admissible even when the judge believes it is unreliable. Juries determine on their own whether to consider such testimony. In other words, junk science is fully admissible in Wisconsin. That policy--created by the courts, corrected by a bill, but retained by Gov. Doyle's veto--enables a researcher in an obesity case against a fast-food restaurant to say that, based on a single study of rat behavior, cheeseburgers are as addictive as heroin to humans.