Loomis v. Wisconsin

Loomis v. Wisconsin, 881 N.W.2d 749 (Wis. 2016), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 2290 (2017), was a Wisconsin Supreme Court case that was appealed to the United States Supreme Court.^[1]

The case challenged the state of Wisconsin's use of closed-source risk assessment software in the sentencing of Eric Loomis to six years in prison.^[2] The case alleged that using such software in sentencing violates the defendant's right to due process because it prevents the defendant from challenging the scientific validity and accuracy of such test.^[3] The case also alleged that the system in question (COMPAS) violates due process rights by taking gender and race into account.^[4] Hearing this case would have given the court "the opportunity to rule on whether it violates due process to sentence someone based on a risk-assessment instrument whose workings are protected as a trade secret."^[5]

The Supreme Court denied the writ of certiorari, thus declining to hear the case, on June 26, 2017.^[6][7]