Nov 21, 2017

Wisconsin GOP-DoJ Gives Supreme Court Marching Orders on Factory Farm Case

Citizens are mobilized in central Wisconsin against Big Ag and
Republicans, led by Scott Walker and AG Brad Schimel.
Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—The Republican Wisconsin Department of Justice has given the putative non-partisan Supreme Court its marching orders in an important case involving a proposed, massive factory farm.

The case is Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga, (Appeal Number 2015AP001258).

In April an unanimous state appellate court ruling effectively killed the proposed operation of the Golden Sands/Wysocki corporation CAFO by disallowing use of a 4,660-acre manure dumping field on which millions of gallons of liquid cow waste would be vectored every year.

The appellate ruling freezes construction plans of the Golden Sands CAFO, Confined Agricultural Feeding Operation, by honoring the current legal doctrine of the delineation of vested property rights on which the case centers.

But the Wisconsin Supreme Court quickly agreed to hear the case in September, (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), in an apparent effort to radically expand vested property rights under a new conception pushed by Republicans.

Central Wisconsin residents, local governments and the town of Saratoga want the April state appellate decision to stand because the ruling restricts the operations of the CAFO, and recognizes long-observed doctrine of vested rights.

Under the new Republican theory of vested rights in Wisconsin, an owner of property becomes a extraordinary, super-interest for whom many environmental, safety, zoning, and water-protection laws do not apply.

Don Ystad, a retired business consultant living in Adams county in central Wisconsin has been working with fellow citizens to stop the proposed Golden Sands/Wysocki CAFO which would devastate parts of four counties.

Writes Ystad today:

If it's not occurred to you just how uneven the playing field is against citizens in this CAFO fight, consider that the State of Wisconsin has just weighed in with an Amicus Brief supporting the Supreme Court appeal of the Wysockis and their proposed Golden Sands Dairy CAFO in Saratoga.

It seems overtly political in the face of a brief from the Wisconsin Towns Association, Wisconsin Counties Association and the League of Municipalities which supports Saratoga in their fight against this proposed CAFO, much like Attorney General Schimel's opinion ignoring cumulative effect of high cap wells when the legislature was unable to pass an ag-friendly groundwater bill early this year. I am fed up with being trivialized by this Walker administration in this fight to preserve the health and well being of this area.

Here is the state's DoJ brief.

Fellow concerned citizens, if the number of Amicus Briefs is any indication, this is a watershed moment for us. Nothing to be done for now, but if a 'call to action' comes, please be there for all of us.
The corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court will rule in favor of Big Ag sometime in 2018 in this case, fulfilling its new function to carry out the wishes of Republicans.

Wisconsin Supreme Court justices

Justice Shirley Abrahamson - rule-of-law judge
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley - rule-of-law judge
Justice Patience Roggensack - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Annette Ziegler - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Michael Gableman - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Rebecca Bradley - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish
Justice Daniel Kelly - rightwinger will do anything Wisconsin Republicans wish

2 comments:

  1. Go follow the money of the Big Ag interests at the Dairy Business Association, who have shelled out big $ for those RW crooks on the SCOWIS.

    Good work on keeping this crookedness front and center.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Right on the money. Most of those SCOWIS members and rural WISGOP legislators have received plenty of donations from the Big Ag polluters at the Dairy Business Association.

    I would love for a DBA donation to be toxic to a politician, instead of the DBA's business being toxic to the typical Wisconsinite.

    ReplyDelete