In a free society, every person has a right to say, publish and broadcast any truthful facts about anything. One can pay for a full-page ad in any newspaper (that is willing to take the money) saying what one wants to say.
Increasingly, this is not the case in America. After generations of suffering setbacks when they tried to censor speech that was suspicious of government, government-trusters are moving to exploit a new theory to limit freedom of speech.
They seek to censor suspicion by using “campaign finance” laws, upon claims that the SPENDING on published remarks can be outlawed.
Of course, by outlawing SPENDING on speech that the government disagrees with, the government can effectively eliminate free speech–and totally control American politics.
On a fall day back in 2012, an armed SWAT team launched a pre-dawn raid of several private homes to search for any evidence that people in those households had “coordinated” with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker when paying for pro-Walker ads. (The horror!)
(Note: nothing in this post should suggest any support whatsoever for Scott Walker.)
As political activist Paul Jacob writes: “This was simply the opening salvo in a long and intrusive “John Doe” investigation of 26 groups suspected of violating Wisconsin’s campaign finance regulations by allegedly coordinating their activities with Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.”
But “To this day, after years and much “evidence” gathering, no one has been charged.”
Paul Jacob continues:
those being investigated [we]re ordered to remain silent. Those who suffered from the Wisconsin raids were told that they couldn’t tell anyone other than their attorneys. . . . children, forced to miss school waiting while their homes were ransacked, were told to lie to school officials as to why.
Had Eric O’Keefe, head of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, not bravely defied the gag order and spoken out about this sinister and illegal political witch hunt, it might indeed be proceeding apace and in secret — without the people of Wisconsin or America having any knowledge of what their government was doing.
O’Keefe risked talking to the Wall Street Journal, which published an editorial lambasting the Wisconsin speech police. But O’Keefe also sued Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz and others involved in the John Doe probe in federal court for violating his First Amendment rights.
Federal District Judge Rudolph Randa not only ruled in O’Keefe’s favor, he ordered that all materials taken by DA Chisholm and his speech police be immediately returned and any copies made of documents or computer hard drives be destroyed.
Yet, The witch hunt continued. Until this week, when the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the investigation was wholly baseless and illegal, and targeted people “who were wholly innocent of any wrongdoing.”
