The public is largely oblivious to one of the biggest scandals in recent American political history. A tale that includes midnight raids by SWAT teams, machine guns brandished in the middle of the night, secret wiretaps of internet traffic, gag orders and secret evidence–aimed at suppressing inconvenient political movements.
As many are aware, the politics of Wisconsin have undergone major changes in the past decade. The State has a socialist, extreme pro-welfare-state, pro-union-control history; but voters and governor Scott Walker have made some mild inroads against this tradition in recent years. In response, the State’s establishment has launched an all-out political witch hunt against Walker (and his perceived backers), and against free-market ideology generally.
(It seems that the political inquisition was aimed at proving that Walker was ‘coordinating’ his campaign with independent issue organizations, or the Koch Brothers, or the ghost of Joe McCarthy, or something. According to one commentator, “the campaign finance probe turned into a five-county shakedown of nearly every right-of-center group in the state.”) See here.
(Note: nothing herein should be interpreted as expressing any support whatsoever for Scott Walker (who is mostly a typical politician).
The Wisconsin Supreme Court previously ruled that the State’s fanatical political police violated age-old constitutional protections when they launched midnight raids of Walker’s offices and the homes of supporters and various Republican activists. (Midnight search warrants have been banned for centuries, except in the most extreme violent settings or circumstances.)
But political prosecutors balked at court orders requiring them to return the stolen documents. They claimed that they needed to keep all the illegally-seized documents to defend themselves from lawsuits that might come in the future. (Some have already come.)
Earlier this week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court boldly ordered the State’s Inquisitors to return the documents and destroy any copies.
Stay tuned!
