The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by three Democratic district attorneys seeking to revive a criminal investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s recall campaign — effectively ending the legal wrangling over the four-year-old probe.Needless to say, the secret policemen are disappointed:
The decision marks a major victory for Walker and his Republican allies, who mounted a vigorous challenge to the secretive, so-called John Doe II investigation that involved investigators issuing dozens of subpoenas and seizing equipment and millions of documents from those under investigation.
In a statement Monday, Walker said the U.S. Supreme Court, Wisconsin Supreme Court and other judges have all reached the same conclusion — “that this investigation by prosecutors was without merit and thus must be ended.”
“I applaud the individuals and organizations who fought for and successfully defended their First Amendment rights against political opponents who wanted to silence them,” Walker said.
In a joint statement, the three district attorneys who appealed the case — [Milwakee County Prosecutor John] Chisholm, Dane County’s Ismael Ozanne and Iowa County’s Larry Nelson — said they were disappointed by the decision.Not to put too fine a point on it, but they are proud that they have gotten their asses handed to them at every level of jurisdiction. In a better world, all three of these individuals would be disbarred. They won't be. They are now required to turn over all the materials they seized within 30 days. I am willing to wager that Chisholm and his partners in sleaze will turn the materials over via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“The state Supreme Court decision, left intact by today’s order, prohibits Wisconsin citizens from enacting laws requiring the full disclosure of disguised contributions to a candidate, i.e., monies expended by third parties at the direction of a candidate for the benefit of that candidate’s election,” they said.
“We are proud to have taken this fight as far as the law would allow and we look forward to the day when Wisconsin adopts a more enlightened view of the need for transparency in campaign finance.”
What has happened to Walker and his political allies in Wisconsin is similar to the lawfare tactics used in Texas against Tom DeLay and Rick Perry. In the end, it all gets thrown out, but the process itself is the punishment. It's a disgrace.
3 comments:
I have only one thing to add here; in a just world, they wouldn't just be disbarred. They would spend some time in the graybar hotel for ignoring the clear implications of the Bill of Rights.
In the real world, a compliant should at least be filed, and we should carefully take note of exactly who chooses to ignore it so we can remove them from office.
They would spend some time in the graybar hotel for ignoring the clear implications of the Bill of Rights.
To be desired, yes. But absent a particular relevant statute, I wouldn't send 'em to jail. That's not to say there isn't an applicable statute involved. I'm not a lawyer.
I'm not quite sure about criminal law, but there should be. There is certainly a history of civil action against rogue government officials, though, dating back to the founding of the Republic, and even further back in English law. There is also a federal law which requires many government officials to be trained in the 4th Amendment, and even provides at least civil penalties for violating this.
(homeschoolers have a litany of examples of where social services workers ignored these protections as school officials tried to use social services to nudge their kids back into the government schools)
But that said, a lot of this kind of silliness would end if we simply got people fired for cause, and disbarment would be even better. Even in this, though, we are dreaming, it seems.
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