Scott Walker's Coup in Plain Sight

Scott Walker's codifying Republican rule through Republican legislation in Wisconsin is unprecedented.

This legislative project was attempted in secret, until Walker backed down last July in his effort to kill Wisconsin's Open Records law, a law he broke (Mal Contends). So Walker is attempting his efforts through Republican legislators in broad daylight (Truthout).

The reaction to this series of Republican power grabs and killing of corruption protection won't be like the firing of Archibald Cox, though it should be.

Walker and the Republican legislators are engineering the destruction of Wisconsin clean government:

• The end of Wisconsin's century-old Civil Service law replaced by Republican-vetted hiring, ultimately of some 30,000 state workers
• 'Republicans' dismantling the Government Accountability Board (GAB), a nonpartisan panel of former judges that investigate campaign finance and ethics violations
• Per the Club for Growth, Republicans' destroying law enforcement tool to fight political corruption and protect public integrity in public office, because Walker would likely would face misconduct in public office charges after the likely vacating in federal court of the corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on consolidated John Doe cases decided in July 2015, (PRWatch). [B]ill would prevent district attorneys from using Wisconsin's John Doe law to investigate crimes like bribery and misconduct in public office (WPR)
• Republicans' funneling more money into political campaigns

John Doe Exemption of Public Misconduct

[Note: Wisconsin owes a note of thanks to Marcus J. Berghahn at Hurley, Burish and Stanton S.C., in Madison for its background work on the John Doe statute. Berghahn notes, "[John Doe] proceedings are also designed to protect innocent citizens from the fallout of frivolous prosecutions. (2, State ex rel. Reimann v. Cir. Ct., 214 Wis. 2d 605, 621, 571 N.W.2d 385, 390 (1997))]

Writes Berghahn:

As the Wisconsin Supreme Court stated in 1889: 'When [the John Doe] statute was first enacted the common-law practice was for the magistrate to issue the warrant on a complaint of mere suspicion, and he was protected in doing so. This was found to be a very unsafe practice. Many arrests were made on groundless suspicion, when the accused were innocent of the crime and there was no testimony whatever against them. This statute was made to protect citizens from arrest and imprisonment on frivolous and groundless suspicion.' [(3) State ex rel. Long v. Keyes, 75 Wis. 288, 294-95, 44 N.W. 13, 15 (1889).]

Readers would not know about the reformist function and roots of the John Doe law from Walker and Attorney General Brad Schimel (R) who routinely trashed the law when bi-partisan Constitutional law enforcement officers uncovered widespread Republican corruption, criminality and misconduct in public office.

Back in 2009, then Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (R) wanted to change the John Doe statute saying fiscal and separation of powers concerns drove his proposal, (Wisconsin DoJ). This was before John Doe I (2010-2013) began, caused by Walker administration stonewalling.

This week, (after documents filed in federal court in 2014 show Scott Walker to be at the center of a criminal scheme), legislative Republicans suddenly discovered a new objection saying the law curbs free speech. This is not credible.

Judges routinely issue gag orders but legislative Republicans have not objected to curbs on free speech as a matter of judicial policy until after Walker and other subjects were questioned in two separate John Doe probes. In fact Republicans never had a problem expressed publicly with the John Doe secrecy codicils until the probe centered around subjects and events concerning Scott Walker.

John Doe at work stopping venal criminality of Scott Walker
and his aides. From left to right: Felon Tim Russell, Scott Walker
and Felon Brian Pierick, Four other Walker associates
were convicted in a Wisconsin John Doe probe (2010-13).

Criminal scandal from John Doe I, such as Walker's long-time aides and appointees embezzling from a military veterans' fund after being personally appointed by Walker (Milwaukee County Executive (2002-10)), and Walker's office running interference are shown in the 1,000s of pages of court documents made public, are enough to destroy Walker politically (WisconsinWatch) in future national campaigns.

Last year a visibly nervous Walker refused  to acknowledge he had used his own email on an illegal system, in violation of Wisconsin's Open Records law that Republicans tried to kill earlier this year before backing down, (Clark, Columbia Journalism Review) (Marley, Stein and Gabler, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

As for Walker, having failed to kill Wisconsin's Open Records law and caught lying about his effort to kill the law, new reports showing he violated it criminally and repeatedly should keep Gov. UnIntimidated's criminal defense attorneys busy the rest of Walker's term, (Mal Contends).

Wisconsin's reformist institutions and citizens should voice their concerns objecting to the GOP assault on representative government before Wisconsin's reputation of great beer, a stellar public university system, clean and open government and achievements in abolitionist, civil rights and progressive movements is displaced by the vague determination that it's all corrupt up there and you can't trust the drinking water; let's to go to Minnesota.

Fed Judge's Ruling on Dark Money Moves to State Court Under Cloud

The Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board (GAB), Wisconsin's election board, and John Doe officials have effectively acceded to a corrupt federal judge's ruling that was expected to be overturned in federal appellate court in a bizarre legal move yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa (corrupted in service to the Koch brothers, Federalist Society, the Bradley Center; nominally of the Eastern District of Wisconsin) issued an ruling in mid-October declaring Wisconsin's campaign finance regulations—prohibiting coordination among political candidates and dark money 'issue' groups—violate the First Amendment and henceforth are unenforceable.

The case is Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates, Inc., v. Thomas Barland (Case No. 14-C-1222).

Randa faced a judicial slap-down and possible ethical investigations in federal appellate court so now all parties have decided to cover up for Randa by moving the case to state court.

The GAB and John Doe officials have reached an agreement with Citizens ... moving the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) and narrowing Randa's injunction of Wisconsin campaign finance law under Randa's novel and contrived theory of the First Amendment.

Partisan Republicans enjoy a four-to-three majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has lost legitimacy as an impartial judicial body.

When the rightwing group, Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates, filed its suit in early October, it gamed the court paperwork so Randa would hear the case, which happened and Randa subsequently fast-tracked the case, instead of waiting until after Election Day (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

"Judge Randa first made news in May when he issued an extraordinary ruling halting the criminal campaign finance investigation into Governor Scott Walker's campaign, declaring that candidates and 'dark money' nonprofits have a First Amendment right to coordinate over ads that don't expressly tell viewers how to vote (and ordering the destruction of evidence). That ruling was reversed by a unanimous decision from the 7th Circuit in September, with conservative jurist Frank Easterbrook calling Randa's decision 'imprudent,' 'unnecessary,' and an 'abuse of discretion,'" notes Brendan Fischer of PR Watch.

Randa's October 14 ruling devastating Wisconsin's campaign finance regulations was issued just weeks before the November 4 election in a clear violation of the Purcell doctrine employed by courts as a guiding principle that election law is not changed close to an election, and certainly not before voting had already begun as is the case in Wisconsin where 1,000s of absentee votes were already cast when Randa issued his ruling in mid October.

The effect of the ruling was to legalize coordination among candidates and dark money, allowing Scott Walker's campaign some three weeks to conspire with whomever it chose.

Randa's ruling, not coincidentally, also would absolve Scott Walker of apparent crimes as indicated by documents released in the John Doe probe that show Walker is suspected to have been at the center of a massive "criminal scheme" Marley, Bice and Glauber, (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).