Five Things to Know About the Scott Walker "John Doe" Ruling

[Judi Lynn]

Five Things to Know About the Scott Walker "John Doe" Ruling
Monday, 20 July 2015 00:00
By Brendan Fischer, PR Watch | News Analysis

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has single-handedly rewritten the state's limits on money in politics, rendering the state's disclosure laws and contribution limits meaningless, and opening the door to unlimited funds directly from corporations and foreign firms.

In a 4-2 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Court's conservative majority ended the John Doe probe into whether Governor Scott Walker illegally coordinated with supposedly "independent" dark money groups during the recall elections. The Court declared that any coordination that did occur didn't violate the law, since it only involved so-called "issue ads" that stopped short of expressly saying "vote for" or "vote against" a candidate.

In doing so, the Court's majority overturned years of precedent and practice in Wisconsin. In 1999, then-Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox's campaign was fined $60,000 for engaging in the same type of issue ad coordination as Walker. Five of the court's eight current justices served alongside Wilcox.

Justice Shirley Abrahamson, writing in dissent, called the majority's decision "an unprecedented and faulty interpretation of Wisconsin's campaign finance law and of the First Amendment." Justice Patrick Crooks' dissent warned that the majority's decision "will profoundly affect the integrity of our electoral process."

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31956-five-things-to-know-about-the-scott-walker-john-doe-ruling

[bobthedrummer]

1. Scott Walker John Doe Documents (The Center for Media and Democracy/SourceWatch)

Well Judi Lynn, a lot of people here at DU thought those of us in Wisconsin that kept sounding the alarm about His Imperial Majesty years and years ago were just being cheeseheads or something. I often referred to him as "mein Gauleiter".

For those that don't know much about Walker's many evils like WE do here in Wisconsin The Center for Media and Democracy has just the webpage for this thread-a comprehensive FOIA obtained set of John Doe court records and docs.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scott_Walker_John_Doe_Documents

He is an unindicted criminal scumbag, that's mein Gauleiter, seig heil- WALKER!!! They are neo-fascists with a strangling judge and worse in the WI Supreme Court.

[Paka]

2. He's a scary man alright.

But clueless voters simply don't get it.