The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to take up an appeal seeking to revive the secret “John Doe” probe into coordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative groups.
The rejection leaves in place a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that shut down the probe.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce president and CEO Kurt R. Bauer praised the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to take up the case.
“The prosecutors were rejected at every step of the legal process and justice has prevailed,” Bauer said. “They lost at the county court level. They lost at the Wisconsin Supreme Court and now they have lost at the U.S. Supreme Court. The First Amendment remains a vital part of our democracy in Wisconsin and our nation and people shouldn’t face jail time for speaking out on issues. Businesses need to have the right to stand up to the government to tell the people about how taxes and regulations affect the daily lives of our citizens. WMC has taken a strong stand on free speech rights for our members and all businesses and will continue to exercise our free speech rights without government harassment in the future.”
The controversy attracted renewed attention recently when The Guardian newspaper obtained more than 1,000 pages of leaked documents from the investigation. Walker has called the information contained in the leaked documents “old news” and insisted he did nothing wrong.
Last week, Assembly Democrats called for the Dane County District Attorney to investigate donations to, and activities of, Walker and his campaign committee.
“Although I am disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear this appeal, it is more important than ever to ensure the potential corruption revealed by the documents leaked by The Guardian is thoroughly investigated here at home,” state Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, said today. “There are new crimes that have not been considered by any court that need to be looked at that suggest rampant corruption in our electoral and legislative systems. Wisconsin deserves better, and it starts with an immediate and comprehensive examination of these newly revealed potential crimes.”
Read more at Wispolitics.com or at WISN-TV Channel 12, which are media partners of BizTimes Milwaukee.
