May 9, 2014

FEC Commissioner: Judge Randa's Order a Troubling Cut-and-Paste Job

Updated - Talking Points Memo's Eric Lach has an interview up with Federal Election Commission (FEC) Vice Chair, Ann Ravel, reacting to Judge Rudolph Randa's ruling this week shutting down the John Doe probe looking into possible illegal coordination between Scott Walker's campaign and rightwing groups in the 2012 recall elections.

Ms. Ravel slams Randa's ruling, adding to the growing perception that a federal judge is working directly for the benefit of one political faction in his jurisdiction, the Republican Party.

Ravel's comments are the first by a jurist speaking to the merits of Randa's decision and order.

Here's a excerpt, the whole interview is worth reading.

Says Ravel:

"[Randa's ruling] is significant nonetheless, because it goes so far beyond what the Supreme Court has ruled in Citizens United and McCutcheon. And the language in the decision is very broad and troubling."

I think essentially what he's saying isn't the law. He has cut and pasted a lot of decisions, a lot of language from various decisions, in a way that is actually not applicable. And if it were to be carried out to its full meaning, there would be very few campaign [finance] laws that would continue to be able to be enforced." (emphasis added)

Corrupt prosecutors too often employ overly creative constructions and aggregations of elements of criminal statute and case law to arrive at a predetermined conclusion in their objective to secure criminal convictions, irrespective of justice.

In Eric O’Keefe and Wisconsin Club for Growth, Inc. v Francis Schmitz, et al (Case No.  14-C-139), the artist creating a legal montage is Judge Rudolph Randa, and citizens are left staring mutely at his contrivance, now doubting whether judicial impartiality and justice still exist in Wisconsin.

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