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Justice, at Last, in Wisconsin
Of all the recent attempts to criminalize political speech, there probably haven’t been any quite as breathtaking as the “John Doe” investigations undertaken in Wisconsin to intimidate supporters of conservative causes and politicians — especially, of course, Scott Walker. Here’s how David French memorably described one of the many instances of harassment the investigations birthed in a May piece in National Review:
“It’s a matter of life and death.” That was the first thought of “Anne” (not her real name). Someone was pounding at her front door. It was early in the morning — very early — and it was the kind of heavy pounding that meant someone was either fleeing from — or bringing — trouble. “It was so hard. I’d never heard anything like it. I thought someone was dying outside.” She ran to the door, opened it, and then chaos. “People came pouring in. For a second I thought it was a home invasion. It was terrifying. They were yelling and running, into every room in the house. One of the men was in my face, yelling at me over and over and over.”
It was indeed a home invasion, but the people who were pouring in were Wisconsin law-enforcement officers. Armed, uniformed police swarmed into the house. Plainclothes investigators cornered her and her newly awakened family. Soon, state officials were seizing the family’s personal property, including each person’s computer and smartphone, filled with the most intimate family information.
Why were the police at Anne’s home? She had no answers. The police were treating them the way they’d seen police treat drug dealers on television. In fact, TV or movies were their only points of reference, because they weren’t criminals. They were law-abiding. They didn’t buy or sell drugs. They weren’t violent. They weren’t a danger to anyone. Yet there were cops — surrounding their house on the outside, swarming the house on the inside. They even taunted the family as if they were mere “perps.”
As if the home invasion, the appropriation of private property, and the verbal abuse weren’t enough, next came ominous warnings. Don’t call your lawyer. Don’t tell anyone about this raid. Not even your mother, your father, or your closest friends.
The entire neighborhood could see the police around their house, but they had to remain silent. This was not the “right to remain silent” as uttered by every cop on every legal drama on television — the right against self-incrimination. They couldn’t mount a public defense if they wanted — or even offer an explanation to family and friends.
Yet no one in this family was a “perp.” Instead … they were American citizens guilty of nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights to support Act 10 and other conservative causes in Wisconsin. Sitting there shocked and terrified, this citizen — who is still too intimidated to speak on the record — kept thinking, “Is this America?”
This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court answered that question with a resounding “no.” From the opinion:
Our lengthy discussion of these three cases can be distilled into a few simple, but important, points.
It is utterly clear that the special prosecutor has employed theories of law that do not exist in order to investigate citizens who were wholly innocent of any wrongdoing. In other words, the special prosecutor was the instigator of a “perfect storm” of wrongs that was visited upon the innocent Unnamed Movants and those who dared to associate with them.
It is fortunate, indeed, for every other citizen of this great State who is interested in the protection of fundamental liberties that the special prosecutor chose as his targets innocent citizens who had both the will and the means to fight the unlimited resources of an unjust prosecution. Further, these brave individuals played a crucial role in presenting this court with an opportunity to re-endorse its commitment to upholding the fundamental right of each and every citizen to engage in lawful political activity and to do so free from the fear of the tyrannical retribution of arbitrary or capricious governmental prosecution.
Further:
To be clear, this conclusion ends the John Doe investigation because the special prosecutor’s legal theory is unsupported in either reason or law. Consequently, the investigation is closed. Consistent with our decision and the order entered by Reserve Judge Peterson, we order that the special prosecutor and the district attorneys involved in this investigation must cease all activities related to the investigation, return all property seized in the investigation from any individual or organization, and permanently destroy all copies of information and other materials obtained through the investigation. All Unnamed Movants are relieved of any duty to cooperate further with the investigation.
Heartening, if not ultimately satisfying. The process, after all, is really the punishment here, and there’s no real remedy available for what a lot of innocent Wisconsinites had to go through as a result of this witch hunt. You can count me sated when everyone involved in these prosecutions is out of a job.
For now though, this will do quite nicely.
Published in Law
Yes. One of the liberal justices recused herself, or it would probably have been 4-3.
Yes — here is the link to the full decision. I believe the dissent is included, although I haven’t waded through the whole thing myself:
http://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=144525
And here is a direct link to Justice Abrahamson’s dissent (posted on an anti-Walker site — watch out for burning hair!):
http://www.bluecheddar.net/?p=43077
How is what David French described not a home invasion? Granted, the cops were acting in good faith, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the prosecutors who ordered the raids were not. Swatting someone is a crime, but somehow if you’re a state prosecutor the worst that can happen is you’ll get fired?
I hope you’re right, Chisolm et al. deserve whatever is coming to them and more.
For a certain segment of the Left this is nearly as devastating as the recall victory. They’ve staked many hopes on this…
Yeah I have a hard time with the death penalty on this one. Nobody actually died. If someone had died I would say game on. In this case 25 to life seems appropriate
One of the slimier tactics of the prosecutors in this investigation has been their use of personal information seized in their raids to embarrass and harass their victims. At the end of the first John Doe investigation, when it was clear that they had nothing and they’d have to close up shop, they dumped all of the emails and personal correspondence they had seized to the media, who descended on it in a feeding frenzy. The media, of course, were hoping to find some incriminating information about Walker — as if the prosecutors had left any stone unturned in that arena. When they couldn’t find anything actually illegal, the newspaper turned to publishing embarrassing details gleaned from the emails about Walker’s aides (relationship problems, smelly cat odors in their homes, etc.). Just disgusting. This decision today should bar them from repeating this kind of behavior. They are ordered to return all seized materials and destroy the records. Good. As Leigh points out, the media would love to get their hands on this stuff, but they will hopefully be disappointed.
Some hyperbole, yes. Am I embarrassed? No. These knowing and premeditated acts against individuals exercising the most basic freedom of political expression, strike at the very foundation of our system of governance. These intentional acts were designed to destroy it. If prosecutors can invent theories to prosecute such individuals, I am permitted to label their acts treasonous. Sauce for the goose… In an environment where political speech is under increasing assault, egregious cases like this require retribution; if severe punishment does not occur by force of law, I fear some may be tempted to take the law into their own hands. This is a case demanding swift and harsh punishment.
There needs to be substantial jail time, disbarment and monetary damages against all involved, down to the para-legals and cops. None of this “just following orders” defense. There needs to be enormous pain inflicted to serve as a cautionary message against other would-be thugs. I strongly suspect there any number of points at which a number of individuals involved could have stopped this, but they all chose not to do so. Only by making an exceedingly harsh example of them will we lesson the likelihood of future occurances.
Wisconsin needs this purge, or it will forever be seen to be a corrupt joke, like Chicagoland.
Then we need to see Bruce Willis, or someone like him, make a movie about it.
Wow. They ought to be liable for an invasion of privacy. Discovery via RICO could be very, very revealing.
Not many people know that the original investigation was requested by Scott Walker’s office, back when he was the Milwaukee County Executive, because some money had gone missing from the Veterans’ fund. For a year, the DA’s office did nothing on that case, but when Walker became governor and his budget reforms were being passed, that old request was resurrected and used as a pretext to launch a John Doe investigation into Walker’s office. They did find and prosecute the embezzler, but it became a case of “Now that you’ve let us inside, we’re going to have a look around” — and they just kept expanding it into a bigger and bigger fishing expedition.
… and it gets reported as “Walker aide convicted of embezzlement.”
The media will spin for all they’re worth, but at least this decision forces them to put some reality in the paper, even if it’s only in the direct quotes from the decision.
This degree of prosecutorial abuse should result in castration.
While not unanimous, satisfying nonetheless. One of those ‘Justices’, Shirley Abramson was the previous Lefty Chief Justice. We had a referendum this past year where voters approved a change to state constitution to allow Justices to elect the Chief from their ranks. Shirley ‘The People’s Justice!’ promptly lost that selection among the justices, sued (and lost) and can choke on it, along with Ann Walsh-Bradley from here on out.
Next Lefty ‘nail-pop scheduled to get hammered down’, ‘The Government Accountability Board’, that punk that collaborator/friend of IRS’s Lois Lerner detailed in WSJ last week.
I’ve been wondering, but don’t know the normal workings — is she part of the reason it took so long for this case to be decided? This has been going on for three years. Is the system just that slow, or was the court engaging in some foot-dragging?
I have to say that — compared to national Republicans, and those in some other states I’ve lived in — the Wisconsin bunch has been pretty effective in this kind of maneuvering.
The connections to Lois Lerner are really mind-boggling! Just when you think the story can’t get any more corrupt and outrageous!
Oh, and I love the way the left-wing sites in Wisconsin are in high dudgeon over the supposed corruption of this Supreme Court decision. Their reasoning: Since every conservative group in the state was targeted by the John Doe, then every justice who is perceived as conservative should have recused himself, leaving Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley to render their lofty, unbiased rulings.
Dr. Rahe,
Disbarment for this severe a crime would appear as a slap on the wrist. I think your RICO idea is appropriate.
Regards,
Jim
Because some of those conservative groups contributed to their campaigns, therefore biasing them. The fact that they also contributed to the liberal judges’ opponents, it seems, wouldn’t influence the liberals. Of course not.
If I was unable to get to my firearms and vest( which means this invasion just became a gunfight) , watching this horror for my family would be too much for me. I would [Editor’s note: Let’s stay at least two steps away threats away from threats of extrajudicial, vigilante violence; on reflection, the editors felt the reason for our original redaction was unclear, so we’re making it explicit now. ] on the perp who ordered this and the cop who led it. I might wait decades before I acted but it would never leave my mind. There are worse things than jail or death to me.
Ask and ye shall receive. Already on the agenda for the next Law Talk, out Tuesday.
This is a welcomed relief. Could we please just replace the current Supreme Court of the United States with the Wisconsin Supreme Court please? It is great. Now however all the government officials that are part of this abuse of power need to, at the very least, lose their jobs and hopefully be forced to pay severe civil penalties. When government officials break faith with the people this way they must be punished.
I can’t wait to here the discussion on Law Talk! It should be very, very interesting.
Not ultimately satisfying. That prosecutor should be strung up in the public square as an example. I don’t mean that literally, of course, but prison time for a very serious prosecutorial misconduct (in addition to the fullest extent of license consequences) does not seem to go even far enough.
I must correct myself: Ann Walsh Bradley recused herself. Shirley Abrahamson and Pat Crooks were the dissenters.
The main page of Yahoo had a link to an article about this issue with standard MSM objectivity. The Headline: Walker Gets Off Scott Free; Judges Shut Down Investigation.
Correction to last; here’s the Michael Isikoff Headline:
Walker goes Scott-free as state judges shut down fundraising probe
Disbarment is not enough. Sure worked in the case of Bill Clinton. Jail. Lots of jail.
The Cheesehead CHEKA must suffer for terrorising citizens.
This is the kind of Supreme Court you can get via low turnout, springtime “non partisan” elections.
Lots of comments along those lines and they’re legitimate. It’s important to remember, though, that he was able to get away with it for so long because of a whole bunch of flaws in the system, and fixing that is at least as important in deterring copycats as nailing Chisholm.
The state legislature seems to be on the case — in fact, it seems as though they’ve been ready and were just waiting for the decision:
So I take it you’d be in favor of Ed Jagels, former Kern Co. (CA) prosecutor and one of the alleged “Lords of Bakersfield” getting “severe punishment,” right?
As disgusting as the John Doe cases have been (seriously, WI, prosecutorial investigations in which secrecy is legally protected?!), there is a reason why there is a general protection of sovereign immunity.
It’s also worth noting that Justice Ziegler devoted her entire concurring opinion to a very thorough (and excellent) examination of the inappropriateness of the “paramilitary tactics” used to affect the searches and seizures associated with the John Doe warrants. Her opinion runs from paragraphs 307-341 in the text of the ruling and is well-worth reading: http://bit.ly/1HxSkKH.
Among other things, her account should serve as a reminder to we (us? grammar crisis right here) pro-federalism-, pro-law-and-order-types that there are legitimate concerns to be had about the corruption of local or even of regional institutions. It should be horrifying to all of us that we had to rely upon a Supreme Court of any kind to play the role of saviour, here.