This is What A Peeved US District Court Judge Sounds Like

In court this afternoon, US District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller addressing an attorney for the defendants on how some portions of the state had conducted itself in various legislative and pre-trial matters prior to the opening of the redistricting trial Tuesday, and whether more pre-trial information was needed:

...we have had enough of the charade and mischaracterization. I don't mean to impugn either you or anyone associated with this case, but as they say, the facts are the facts. What has occurred here is beyond the pale in terms of lack of transparency, secrecy, and at the end of the day, as the court has commented earlier, it may not have anything to do with the price of tea in China, but appearances are everything, and Wisconsin has prided itself for one generation after another on openness and fairness and doing the right thing.

To be candid, we have seen everything but that in the way this case has progressed. Not because of anything that you did...or anybody else, but the facts are the facts, and so we're going to get to the bottom of the facts so that the judges who are called upon to discharge their function have all of the information before us that will result in a fair, just and complete opinion.

That's what this case is all about. So to the extent that additional discovery is required, it's going to happen.