Posted on 07/16/2015 6:32:06 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ended a secret investigation into whether Republican Gov. Scott Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with conservative groups in winning his 2012 recall election.
The court's action is a major victory for Walker as he pursues the presidency, though one expert said prosecutors could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. No one has been charged in the so-called John Doe probe, Wisconsin's version of a grand jury investigation where information is tightly controlled, but questions about the investigation have dogged Walker for months.
The case centers on political activity conducted by Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative organizations during the 2012 recall, which was spurred by Democrats' anger over a Walker-authored law that effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Sure. Like the Supreme Court Justices did in the gay marriage case. Oh, wait...
Majority opinion:
• The justice says the special prosecutor, Francis Schmitz, rooted his probe in “vague, overbroad” sections of the state’s campaign finance law, giving him too much discretion:
The lack of clarity in Ch. 11, which the special prosecutor relies upon, leads us to the unsettling conclusion that it is left to government bureaucrats and/or individual prosecutors to determine how much coordination between campaign committees and independent groups is “too much” coordination. In essence, under his theory, every candidate, in every campaign in which an issue advocacy group participates, would get their own John Doe proceeding and their own special prosecutor to determine the extent of any coordination. This is not, and cannot, be the law in a democracy…
The special prosecutor has disregarded the vital principle that in our nation and our state political speech is a fundamental right and is afforded the highest level of protection. The special prosecutor’s theories…would assure that such political speech will be investigated with paramilitary-style home invasions conducted in the pre-dawn hours and then prosecuted and punished. In short, the special prosecutor completely ignores the command that, when seeking to regulate issue advocacy groups, such regulation must be done with “narrow specificity.”
• The justice defends the decision by a state judge presiding over the investigation to quash subpoenas in the case:
John Doe judges are given enormous discretion to control the scope and conduct of a John Doe proceeding. With this important point in mind, we now turn to the specific issue before us: whether Reserve Judge Peterson violated a plain legal duty when he quashed the subpoenas and search warrants and ordered the return of all seized property. He did not.
• The opinion concludes with another reprimand of the special prosecutor:
Our lengthy discussion of these three cases can be distilled into a few simple, but important, points. It is utterly clear that the special prosecutor has employed theories of law that do not exist in order to investigate citizens who were wholly innocent of any wrongdoing. In other words, the special prosecutor was the instigator of a “perfect storm” of wrongs that was visited upon the innocent Unnamed Movants and those who dared to associate with them.
Yeah, conservativejoy gets all her information about Wisconsin John Doe from lefty websites. Apparently she can’t be bothered to check our side’s information. She secretly admires the power to destroy that John Chisholm had.
lying whore. You still don’t understand the issues. I can’t believe you identify with the fascists conducting this star chamber investigation.
People’s personal photos were seized in pre-dawn raids.
I’ve warned lying conservativejoy before that she was bringing leftist information here to besmirch Walker.
Most here know what you doing.
I figure you are just a Liberal Democrat...mole.
I didn’t make any comments about the investigation. I do think it does not look good that all of the Supreme Court Justices voting against benefited from over 2 million in campaign contributions from the main agency under investigation.
My son, and many others like him, died defending this country and your right to make an ass of yourself. You have no respect for anyone, and, as such, deserve none.
You have no respect for anyone and thus deserve none.
Liberals have no shame. Just forward minds. Congrats for this decision!
Great post!
——the now DISGRACED, self-proclaimed ‘Republican’ who acted as out of control Prosecutor’ who may be facing criminal and civil lawsuites.
You credit Captain Ahab as he obsesses about the whale and his ship has sunk.
Federal Judges, Wisconsin Appellate judges and now the Wisconsin Supreme Court said that an investigation into “involvement in the case on campaign finance issues” was not supported by the Law.
You are besmirching Wisconsin conservative judges just as Jalvert Schmitz did.
We don’t need to refute the kind of crap that lefties make up in their pot parties. We have a Supreme Court decision.
Are you going to besmirch the Speaker of the Assembly who has called for an investigation of the GAB?
The Legislative Audit Bureau and the courts have found that the GAB has disregarded state law and played by its own rules. The ruling today shows a massive misuse of taxpayer dollars on what turned out to be an unlawful abuse of power.
“Moving forward, our citizens must have confidence in their elections and ethics agency. That’s why this fall the legislature will begin making comprehensive reforms in three important areas. We will move forward on Rep. Dave Craig’s reforms to the John Doe laws; we will reform the GAB, led in the Assembly by Rep. Dean Knudson; and we are working with Rep. Kathy Bernier to rewrite the state’s ambiguous campaign finance laws, Chapter 11 in Wisconsin statutes.
http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=352481
I’m sure you will soon post another pile of crap from another flaming lefty site.
He cheated. Nobody said he was booted for it.
Glad to finally have confirmation of his 2.59 grade point average. No wonder his records are sealed.
You are fooling no one here.
The same Speaker who just tried to help Walker repeal the Open Records Laws?
No, you wake up each day “fooled”.
Of course you are approving of the investigation, otherwise why question the Supreme Court?
As a veteran I can only say I served, and your son died, so average citizens don’t have to go through pre-dawn SWAT raids for purported ‘ELECTION LAW VIOLATIONS’ by corrupt partisan prosecutors. If your son understood the facts he would agree.
These fascists violated the first amendment by acting to stop PROTECTED POLITICAL SPEECH and by gagging the targets. They violated the 4th amendment by getting wiretaps and internet service provider files for investigation targets and by seizing property TOTALLY UNRELATED TO THE CHARGES.
You are posting willfully ignorant or maliciously lying posts which just serves to further the evil cause of these Democratic operatives. After the Supreme Court has completely clarified the issue. Not asking for your respect, I just want all the other Freepers to see how maliciously wrong you are.
Keep on being who you are....
Just be you.....
Why don’t you revert to your previous argument that the attempt to repeal the Open Records Laws didn’t happen. That was persuasive. You probably don’t believe in the Holocaust and think 9/11 was an inside job.
My son would think you were a despicable person and would clean your dishonorable clock for speaking to his mother as you did. Don’t purport to know what my son would think. He was a decent person and you wouldn’t be able to relate.
Governor Walker is likewise a decent person. Perhaps you should consider your very own lying accusations against him? How strange you have used sewer rags to trash Governor but go on and on if the same sewer rag writes anything about Cruz about the rag being from the sewer. You lie!
When have I ever gone on and on about someone trashing Cruz, which Walker supporters have done on this site for months. I don’t care what liberal rags say about Walker. I don’t think Breitbart and Red State fit into that category. Neither does Pew Research, Forbes, WSJ, The Blaze and a number of other conservative sites I have posted.
Just get used to the criticism because it is only going to get worse from the campaign field.
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