Discussion: Federal Judge Shuts Down Secret Investigation Of Scott Walker Recall In Wisconsin

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Discussion for article #222507

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We may next expect that the Sinaloa Cartel will sue to stop secret investigations of its activities.

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Any cheesefolk want to explain how this is secretly good news? After all, Walker was going down so the recall failing was no biggie. Or so we were told.

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This story about Scott Walker, Club for Growth, and the other One Percenters began with the phrase “specters of the guillotine”. Talk about getting my hopes up, only to dash them
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“Randa wrote that ‘[m]aximizing the capability’ of 501©4 organizations – non-profits sometimes called ‘dark money’ organizations 
 ‘may be the best way 
 to address problems of political corruption’.
”

So circumventing the law is the best way to prevent circumventing the law?

Makes perfect sense.

To anyone without an intact brain stem.

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Unbelievable. I simply cannot imagine how this doesn’t get turned on appeal. The John Doe case isn’t about campaign contributions (whether or not you believe such contributions to be ‘free speech’ or not), its about the clear legal statutes (in place at the time) expressly prohibiting the coordination of candidate’s campaigns and “issue advocacy groups”. Want to give $5 million dollars to promote a tax incentive plan? Fine, go ahead. But under the laws at the time, and in fact still in place today and in no way addressed by McCutcheon, the coordination of these groups and the individual campaigns is illegal. McCutcheon simply says you don’t have to create a sham PAC or 501 to donate your mega millions, you can do it directly.

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Randa’s ruling essentially says that a prosecutor even investigating coordination is a violation of the 503’s 1st Amendment rights. I could be overstating it some, but I think Randa just said “anything goes” when it comes to campaigns and 501s coordinating with one another.

And that’s a bigger deal than just this particular case and Walker in WI.

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one commenter at the Milw Journal web site described it


“Randa’s logic is that Walker is ideologically predisposed to hump billionaires legs, so he can’t possibly be corrupted by money.”

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And it happened in the state wholly owned by the KochCo. Shocking.

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So it’s illegal to co-ordinate, but co-ordination can’t be investigated?

Bull-lony

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“O‘Keefe and the Club obviously agree with Governor Walker‘s policies, but coordinated ads in favor of those policies carry no risk of corruption because the Club‘s interests are already aligned with Walker and other conservative politicians,” Randa wrote. “Such ads are meant to educate the electorate, not curry favor with corruptible candidates.”

Oh, yes. The Club speaks solely for itself, because it funds itself. Pay no attention to the Kochs, the Club earned that money by
 uh
 bake sales! And don’t ask to see any paperwork on that; that’d be just like the Gulag.

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Oh look
another conservative judge (appointed by Bush 41) writing an opinion about free speech and political advocacy that itself reads like political advocacy.

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The. Real. Slippery. Slope.

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In Citizens United, Justices Scalia and Kennedy said it’s important for unlimited political contributions to be transparent and independent.
I think their sincerity was suspect. It’s certainly not the lesson this federal judge drew from that ruling.

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Are there any other laws the judge is cool with people ‘circumventing’? Or do you have to be a Corporate Person for that to wash?

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So, loopholes are A-OK. Assuming you can find them and afford the lawyers.
Laws are for “those people”.

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From the article:
“O‘Keefe and the Club obviously agree with Governor Walker‘s policies, but coordinated ads in favor of those policies carry no risk of corruption because the Club‘s interests are already aligned with Walker and other conservative politicians,” Randa wrote. “Such ads are meant to educate the electorate, not curry favor with corruptible candidates.”
So what happens when, like in Walker’s case, the politician is already corrupted, and has consistently done the bidding of his corporate pay masters since being elected. This judge is a clearly a buffoon, and does not grasp the reality of current politics. There is clearly coordination going on, everyone can see it.

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So, creative forms of political bribery cannot be prosecuted because “money is speech”???

From this it stands to reason that if I try to slip a cop a C-Note to avoid a traffic ticket I can’t be prosecuted because I was only exercising my constitutionally protected free speech rights. After all, the first amendment protects all speech not just political speech. Perhaps it is [edit]not that much of a stretch to then say that the IRS cannot fine me if I don’t pay because doing so would deprive me of my money which is protected since it is speech.

This is absurd!

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No, see, you have to circumvent laws against bribery for it to be legal. For instance, tell the cop “This isn’t a bribe, but here’s $100.”

That way everyone knows it’s not corruption. Simple!

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I honestly don’t understand what’s happened to WI. They used to have pretty liberal political tendencies. Now, it seems the state is very badly divided by pro and anti Walker factions, RTW, and coping with high unemployment. I don’t really have any doubt that he’ll be reelected. But why?

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So according to this “judge,” circumventing the law is an admirable act of freedom maximization?

Spoken like a pure ratfucker plutocrat.

Pretty sure that wasn’t taught in law school.

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