GOP Judicial Activism in Practice, Example Number 1,743

Before I shut down the old blog, I was on a bit of a crusade against those who criticized Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board for doing what is required of it by law.

The statutes are all pretty clear, I wrote (quoting, you know, the statutes), that the burden of finding and challenging signatures on a recall or nomination petition lies not with the GAB, but rather with the other party to the action.  That is, when an officeholder gets recalled, he or she has the right–and, indeed according to the law, the onus–to challenge any signature on the petition he or she thinks is invalid.

The GAB, in fact, is only really explicitly tasked with verifying that the address provided by the signer is real and within the district.

Now, I get that no one wants to be handed a stack of 700,000 signatures with the note that they have just 10 days to check them all and submit any challenges, whether that one is Scott Walker or, for that matter, the GAB itself.  (GAB actually gets 30 days, and probably 60 if they ask for it.)  But that’s the law, and everyone in the state who’s ever been recalled in Wisconsin, successfully or not, has dealt with it.

Until now.  Until Scott Walker.

So, after venue shopping, the Walker campa–  Oh, pardon me.  Venue shopping: The Republicans in the legislature last year passed a law saying that anyone can sue the state now from the county of their choosing, instead of in Dane County where, you know, the government lives.  They pushed that law with the justification that someone out in very far away lands who is being treated unfairly by the state shouldn’t have to travel all the way down to Madison to resolve the matter, but rather to their own county seat.  Very thoughtful.

In practice, though, what it means is that the Friends of Scott Walker, a campaign outfit headquartered in Dane County and representing Scott Walker who lives Dane County and which could have traveled ten minutes to the Dane County courthouse, filed suit in Waukesha County, because the judge there is an old legislative colleague of the Governor. To continue:

So, after venue shopping, the Walker campaign got the ruling today that it wanted, a ruling that the GAB now has to do the work that, by law it is not allowed to do.

The GOP, the party that opposes frivolous lawsuits and judicial activism, is jubilant today that its frivolous lawsuit produced a piece of judicial activism.  Go figure.

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8 thoughts on “GOP Judicial Activism in Practice, Example Number 1,743

  1. I think you will find that governor walker’s home is actually in Milwaukee not Madison.

    1. Where does the governor live, Jorge? I’m betting he doesn’t live in Wauwatosa (not Milwaukee, as you claimed) but has taken up residence at the governor’s mansion in Maple Bluff, which is just outside of Madison.

    2. Jorge is thats the case, maybe we can close up the Governors Mansion and re-assign the staff to help save the “taxpayers” some money….we are broke dont you know.

  2. There is something deceptive and immoral in demanding a government body whose job is to oversea ballot counts to purposefully ignore fraudulent attempts.

    1. The GAB does not “purposefully ignore” suspected fraud; as stated over and over and over, the GAB will flag suspect signatures for further review by the challengers.

      But the law does not grant the GAB permission to strike those signatures without challenge–something Judge Davis has now ordered them to do.

    2. I understand the argument of holding the GAB bureaucracy to the bureaucratic nature of it’s creation. There is still something deceptive and immoral in the demand.

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