CNN: “The judge in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, made headlines last week by reiterating his longstanding rule of not allowing prosecutors to refer to people as ‘victims’ before juries in his courtroom. At the same time, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder said at a pretrial hearing that the men who were shot could be described as ‘looters’ or ‘rioters’ if the defense can show they engaged in such activity during protests after a police officer shot Jacob Blake in August 2020, leaving Blake paralyzed. ‘Let the evidence show what the evidence shows – that any or one of these people were engaged in arson, rioting or looting, then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that,’ Schroeder said in a closely watched pretrial hearing a week before the start of jury selection on Monday.”

“His decision immediately sparked debate and, in some cases, outrage in legal circles. The longest serving active judge in Wisconsin’s trial courts was, once again, thrust into the spotlight. ‘His word is final and he’s not afraid to make tough decisions,’ said Dan Adams, a Wisconsin criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. Schroeder, 75, has come under scrutiny many times during his nearly 40 years on the bench: From a 2018 sentence – thrown out on appeal – requiring a convicted shoplifter to tell store managers she was on supervision for retail theft to ordering AIDS tests for sex workers in the late 1980s. ‘He has a reputation for doing what he believes is the right thing and being an independent thinker,’ said William Lynch, a retired attorney who served on the board of the ACLU of Wisconsin at the time of Schroeder ruling about the AIDS tests.”