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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / I’ll Take Godwin for $1,000: Wisconsin Rule of Law Edition*

I’ll Take Godwin for $1,000: Wisconsin Rule of Law Edition*

by Tom Levenson|  March 29, 201110:48 pm| 132 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, IOKIYAR

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Pre-publication update: Yes, I know that John has already posted on this while I made the error of dining with my wife.  But I just love the picture below too much not to press the button.  Do not mess with justice, I say.

______

Via TPM, we find that Wisconsin Judge Maryann Sumi (echoing a commenter here, what a great name for a judge) has again enjoined the state of Wisconsin from implementing the union busting law passed in dubious battle last month.

Based on the following, I’m guessing she’s seriously pissed (a legal term of art, you know):

Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of Act 10 was enjoined. That is what I now want to make crystal clear…

adding that

Now that I’ve made my earlier order as clear as it possibly can be, I must state that those who act in open and willful defiance of the court order place not only themselves at peril of sanctions, they also jeopardize the financial and the governmental stability of the state of Wisconsin.

(image below possibly NSFW)

Most sentient puddles would conclude that perhaps they should obey the court’s order until the substantive issues had been fully litigated.  Governor Walker and his henchmen do not share that conviction:

But minutes later, outside the court room, Assistant Attorney General Steven Means said the legislation “absolutely” is still in effect.

Please note that the speaker quoted there is an Asst. Attorney General. As in a lawyer.  As in an officer of the court.

__

So, I guess this is the time to go all Godwin.  It is important to remember that authoritarians almost always use the simulacrum of law to provide a tattered aura of legitimacy for their lawless exercise of power.  Hitler did certainly; his critical powers derived from  grants by the Reichstag.

Please note:  I am not saying Wisconsin is going the way of Berlin, c. 1933.  I am saying that the disdain for the ordinary structure of governance and law is how people behave when democracy is an accessory, and not essential to the entire idea of legitimate authority.  Courts are convenient to such folks when complaisant, and superfluous if not.

To be sure, Walker is a pissant way out of his depth, but as many others have noted, he’s important precisely because he is so overt and obvious in his anti-democratic hatred of that messy business of governing.  He lets us see plainly what his slicker and more sophisticated co-conspirators plan to do:  achieve ends that could not command popular support on their own by any means necessary.

For that, I suppose we should be grateful to the claque of clumsy thugs now in power in Wisconsin.  They are showing us what lurks below the hood of the Republican machine. And so I’ll say to all those right bloggers who maunder on about Obamacare or the Libyan attacks or birth certificates or whatever, if you wish to invoke the words “rule of law” you better have something to say here.

Gotta give them time, I guess, but my bet is on crickets.

Image:  Lucas Cranach Allegory of Justice, 1537

*By the way.  I do know I’ve been conspicuous (as in, unnoticed) by my absence lately.  There have been two reasons.  The first is a press of work so insane that I have ended each day by curling up with a scotch bottle for the five spare minutes alotted me between unconsciousness and panic.

The second is that I occasionally have these funks brought on by the sheer catastrophe of the world.  Sometimes, the accumulation of stupidity, misery, disaster and sheer capricious accident/horror leaves me gobsmacked for something to say.

It’s been that way lately, and I cannot say how much I admire, for example, the front pagers and commentariat here who sustain articulate smarts and anger despite the evident awfulness of existence.  But I’m better now (though still wrecked by an insatiable inbox), so expect more Hitler references and baroque painting on a semi-regular basis.

You have been warned.

 

 

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Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    these assholes will not stop until they are in jail. really. that is what it will take. no fines, no injunctions, nothing. throw their mother fucking asses in jail. that is the only thing that will stop these fucks.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    March 29, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    Activist governator meet activist judge.

    And back in Alaska, more of same. Darn you, federal gummint!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/us/30alaska.html?_r=1&hp

    p.s. Lovely painting.

  3. 3.

    jwb

    March 29, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    @Little Boots: Pitchforks would be another option.

  4. 4.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    p.s. don’t blame you for disappearing for awhile. we posters get to do that all the time, without anyone giving a damn. you have that same right, at least.

  5. 5.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    @jwb:

    we’re getting there. I swear sometimes we are getting there. we have been very peaceful, but sometimes I wonder how long that can last.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    March 29, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    Civil society is a fragile, beautiful thing, like a stalagmite which takes centuries to form and only seconds to be shattered by an crowbar. We are in new territory here for an English speaking country. Even a tyrant like Henry VIII went to great lengths to observe the legal formalities in all that he did. The wingnuts like to yak about Sharia law, but even that is preferable to no law at all. In a world where might makes right the rich and powerful live a precarious existence, always at the mercy of their bodyguards and henchmen.

  7. 7.

    kdaug

    March 29, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    You do know that we’ll be the first to be rounded up, right?

    Salud.

  8. 8.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    @Little Boots: Many thanks for the dispensation.

    One of the many good things about working a group blog after trying to keep the solo act going is being able to go walkabout with more or less impunity.

    @trollhattan: There is something truly wonderful about northern renaiscance stuff, particularly before all the conventions get nailed.

  9. 9.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    If this state does not give a massive repudiation to Scott Walker on April 5th by kicking out the useless asshole David Prosser I do not know what we will do. That will be a signal that we have decided to be slaves and I do not know what I and everyone who hates this regime will do after that.

  10. 10.

    Judas Escargot

    March 29, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    Maddow.

    Maddow, Maddow Maddow.

    Bring it, you tepid little fucks.

  11. 11.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    de nada.

  12. 12.

    MikeJ

    March 29, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    I have been around a pissed off chick with a knife like the one you illustrate this post with. Governor, you don’t want to be there.

  13. 13.

    New Yorker

    March 29, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    I’m beginning to wonder if we’re going to have to send federal troops into Wisconsin to enforce the law a la Little Rock Central High in 1957. Worse, I have the feeling that Obama won’t have the stones to do what Eisenhower did.

    Good lord, maybe the 1950s were a golden age, since the fucking Republicans were more to the left than today’s Democrats.

  14. 14.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    @beltane: I’m with you on this. I think that the turning point was Gore v. Bush, in which the court threw an election and got away with it. These are not good times.

    That said — we’ve had similarly bad times in the past, in fact, and I’m supposed as a historian to remember that most of what seems radically new isn’t, really.

    I have no doubt that we can restrain the authoritarian impulse all around us; I’m not sure we will, but that’s been said just about every decade or so in American history.

  15. 15.

    beltane

    March 29, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    @kdaug: Bahrain, our loyal ally in the GWOT, just arrested a prominent blogger: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/03/30/bahrain-prominent-blogger-mahmood-al-yousif-arrested/ Why not have it happen here?

  16. 16.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 29, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    First of all, you have used this pic before, but I shall forgive that because it’s a wonderful painting. Second of all, I noticed your absence, but I don’t blame you for taking a break. It’s like we’re in Bizarro World or something. Third of all, my mind is still reeling at the blatant whatever-it-is of the AG. “Oh, we’re gonna do what we figging want. Whatcha gonna do about it?” Gah.

  17. 17.

    Mark B

    March 29, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    For all of their talk of ‘rule of law’ they sure don’t have any fucking idea of what it means. I’m wondering if there is some sort of misfeasance of office statute which can lead to criminal charges against a public official in Wisconsin who acts in direct contradiction to the laws of the state. If I were a lawyer, I’d be looking for that …

    Oh crap, the AG is the cheif law enforcement officer of the state. Maybe a brave DA somewhere can draw up the appropriate charges. Or maybe a grand jury can be convinced to consider the charges.

  18. 18.

    Xenos

    March 29, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    @Little Boots:

    these assholes will not stop until they are in jail.

    Very true. With the financial backing from fascist business interests they know they can not be touched by anything but the criminal justice system. That is what it needs to come down to.

  19. 19.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:05 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    Honestly, I don’t think its some big illegal break that does it. it is the slow accumulation of little breaks with tradition and pushing the law to its absolute limit that kills Republics. Every government depends on a certain acceptance of the unwritten rules before it cracks. When people decide that those unwritten rules don’t matter and everything within the letter of the law is okay, that’s when things get really ugly and really brittle.

  20. 20.

    jo6pac

    March 29, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    @Xenos:

    Or they’re in in total control. Scary

  21. 21.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 29, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    Please note: I am not saying Wisconsin is going the way of Berlin, c. 1933.

    Yeah, but only because Walker couldn’t find a drunken Dutch Communist to set fire to the state capitol.

    Slacker.

  22. 22.

    kdaug

    March 29, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    @beltane: Leftist intellectuals are always the first to disappear.

    Internet just makes ’em easier to find.

  23. 23.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    @Little Boots: Yup. And that’s what we’re seeing on a daily basis.

    That and the big lie standby of making sure you accuse your opponents of exactly the offense you are committing. See, e.g. the suggestion that objecting to the seeking of William Cronon’s emails is itself “chilling.”

    This is how Winston Smith’s world works.

  24. 24.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    First of all, you have used this pic before, but I shall forgive that because it’s a wonderful painting.

    I thought I’d used it here, but I wasn’t sure if it had just been hidden at my old blog. But as you say, it’s too wonderful not to reprint at regular intervals, so I ain’t going to either explain or apologize….;)

  25. 25.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    @beltane:

    wish I could remember the details, but Thom Hartmann told this story on his show about a rich German businessman being grilled by an American journalist about his tax rate. The journalist couldn’t believe the guy was okay being taxed at something like a 60% rate, and kept prodding the businessman to bitch about it. finally, the guy responded that he’d lived in countries like Guatemala and South Africa and simply had no desire to be a rich man in a poor country. from his perspective, the high tax rate was totally worth it not to have to deal with misery all around him.

  26. 26.

    MattR

    March 29, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Third of all, my mind is still reeling at the blatant whatever-it-is of the AG. “Oh, we’re gonna do what we figging want. Whatcha gonna do about it?” Gah.

    I think the word you are looking for is “chutzpah”

  27. 27.

    apikoros

    March 29, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    hmm… While I love me some Baroque or even Rococo, I fear that the Cranachs, elder and younger do not qualify. Late International Gothic, perhaps, German Renaissance, more securely, but a wee bit early to be called Baroque!

  28. 28.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 29, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    @Little Boots: Agreed. It really has been a pinch here, a dab there, a swipe there, there, and there…then, Walker and his ilk came along and tried to gank the rest away in one fell-swoop. It’s gonna get nastier and uglier before it gets better, I’m afraid.

    @Tom Levenson: Nor would I ask for it. It IS too wonderful to keep under wraps.

    @MattR: Yeah! That’s it. But with a little more…contempt and sneering attitude. Like churltpah (churlish and chutzpah rolled into one).

  29. 29.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    yeah, exactly. the William Cronon thing is so much more than it seems on the face. It is disgusting, and I understand it’s spread to Michigan now, with about three labor studies professors being subjected to this crap.

  30. 30.

    confitesprit

    March 29, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    I’ve never commented on this site before, but have been a loyal and enthusiastic lurker for quite some time. I really appreciate your completely appropriate capture of angst here. Great read, and of course, you are absolutely correct. Thanks.

  31. 31.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    yup. They might pinch and grab, but we have a breaking point. I’m not sure they want to see that breaking point, but I’m not sure they realize it’s there either.

  32. 32.

    kdaug

    March 29, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    I ain’t going to either explain or apologize….

    Do not.

  33. 33.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:15 pm

    @apikoros: Agreed — see comment 8. When I said baroque above, I was referring to my usual landing position in the art search; should have been clearer.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Activist governator meet activist judge.

    Sorry, there are many governors, but thankfully only one governator (who has now retired).

  35. 35.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    one of the reasons I love this blog is people are actually arguing about the exact epoch of the painting.

    really, I love that.

  36. 36.

    jwb

    March 29, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    @Little Boots: That’s my feeling as well. Also I can’t say that I really advocate the pitchforks, but sometimes I think we’re approaching the point where only they will heard. Because if the law is no longer taken seriously, how long until they simply declare the vote to be what they say it is. And when we’re at that point, then all you have is the pitchfork option.

  37. 37.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:19 pm

    @MattR:
    I was going to be a little cruder:

    Balls bigger than all outdoors.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:21 pm

    @New Yorker: Wisconsin has not run out of options for handling this itself. A certain amount of what you are seeing from the FitzWalker/Van Hollen camp is pure posturing. If someone pulls something else, other than running off at the mouth, Judge Sumi will come down on that person like a ton of bricks. This is going to play out in the courts and at the ballot box, not in the streets.

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    @Little Boots:
    Listen, and understand. Those Republicans are out there. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

  40. 40.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    if they pay any attention. and I think you’re right overall, but this is a group that largely does not care about the law, at all. and I’m not sure what happens if they simply decide not to follow any law at all. they have shown nothing but contempt for legalities so far.

  41. 41.

    beltane

    March 29, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    @Little Boots: My husband spent his high school years in Venezuela as the son of an exec for a large multi-national corporation. He says it was similar to being under house arrest in that you were always vulnerable to shakedowns from the various police forces (when you don’t pay government employees well they tend to work on commission) alongside the usual threats that come from living as a well-off person in a country with huge income disparities. The ability to walk down the street unmolested depends on a fair amount of goodwill from society at large. Throw that away and it’s only a matter of time before a Chavez or a Castro comes along to afflict the comfortable.

  42. 42.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    tell Omnes. I respect Omnes a lot, but this is the kind of thing that gives me pause.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    March 29, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Pitchforks in comment 3. asiangrrlMN in comment 16. something slowing you down?

  44. 44.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 29, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    @Little Boots: No, I don’t think they do. I think all this protesting and push-back has taken them by surprise. They are not acting as professionals or with any kind of persuasive message here. They are just going for broke. So, it’s up to us to oblige them–and break them.

    @WaterGirl: Honestly, I’m not sure the pitchforks are enough–not even my trusty, rusty ones. But, I will bring them to the revolution, for sure.

  45. 45.

    vhh

    March 29, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    I am not a lawyer, but I do believe that Judge Sumi can cite the WI AG and possibly the Governor for contempt of Court, send out a Marshal with a warrant, and compel them to appear in Court to answer the charge.

  46. 46.

    apikoros

    March 29, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    Now if you want baroque… Try “the Ecstasy of St. Theresa”!

    A more divine eroticism (or more erotic divinity) has nere been witnessed :-)

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    @jwb:
    How many times has history gotten to the pitchfork option?
    Many, many times.
    And it’s always nasty and almost always fairly bloody.

  48. 48.

    Martin

    March 29, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: Well, in the past, the GOP pulled this shit when the job economy wasn’t nearly so fucked. Yanking shit away from people doing well might annoy them, but yanking shit away from people struggling will get you a punch in the neck.

    If it was happening in just one place, I think even now the GOP could get away with it – but they’re doing it everywhere at once – fed, state, and local. And the Koch paid trolls are making it look like there is widespread support for this when there certainly is not. Its going to blow up big, I suspect.

  49. 49.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    @beltane:

    that’s where I’m heading. and I don’t want to. but we are fracturing as a society. we are heading toward some pretty extreme choices if we don’t pull back soon.

  50. 50.

    beltane

    March 29, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    @apikoros: Rubens would be considered Baroque if I’m not mistaken.

  51. 51.

    honus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    @Mark B: Actually, (unlike the US AG, who is the head of the Justice Department) the AG in most states isn’t the chief law enforcement officer of the state. He is a lawyer who represents the state in civil suits, more akin to the US Solicitor General.
    Despite campaign rhetoric, state AGs have little or no law enforcement authority. For instance, Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli’s lawsuit in which he is trying to compel documents from UVA for his climate change witch hunt is a civil investigative request, not a criminal investigation.
    The Wisconsin judge could sanction and hold in contempt the AG just like any other lawyer, and the law enforcement authorities would enforce her orders if necessary. They are in no way commanded by the AG. Which it sounds like the Wisconsin AG may soon find out. Judges regularly jail lawyers who fail to follow the orders of the Court. Prosecutors and Attorneys General enjoy no immunity from such enforcement.
    Put another way, while, on the federal level, as Andrew Jackson pointed out, Supreme Court justices have no command of military or law enforcement personnel, at the state level, the judges command the police, not the AG.

  52. 52.

    Phoebe

    March 29, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: But isn’t the AG supposed to tie itself into knots to say what the executive says is law is law, until the court says “No it isn’t. Jackass.” And when I say “supposed to” I mean “does” not “should”, because I think it’s triple fucked. But it’s what the AG did for a long time with DADT and DOMA and all that crap that Obama said was unconstitutional during his campaign, right? Defend the executive, always always always? I would prefer the AG tell the executive the law, and prevent the executive from breaking it, but apparently it’s just a hired gun. And the system is ok with that because the court is there to check-and-balance it? Again, I find this wronger than wrong, but is that what we’ve got?

  53. 53.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    @apikoros: I need a (chocolate) cigarette after that one.

  54. 54.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I like this. Go for broke, we will break you.

  55. 55.

    General Stuck

    March 29, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    To be sure, Walker is a pissant way out of his depth, but as many others have noted, he’s important precisely because he is so overt and obvious in his anti-democratic hatred of that messy business of governing.

    Yes, he is. Just the kind of wingnut our side needs. The asswipe cancels out another long standing potent, but bullshit gooper meme about every day with his antics. And in the upper midwest, which isn’t exactly the wingnut national central command. Law and Order republican. Not anymore. Americans don’t care for rule breakers. They like them some wingnut patriotic jingoism, but defying John Law won”t float very far.

  56. 56.

    apikoros

    March 29, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    @beltane: Oh, very much so, Beltane!

  57. 57.

    ferd of the nort

    March 29, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    @Little Boots: Check out the response of Japanese industry to their planned cut from 40% to 35% taxes. They said they would PASS on getting the tax cut because the government really needs the money right now.Reuters

  58. 58.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    @vhh:

    seriously, that might be what it takes. these guys do not care unless they personally pay the price.

  59. 59.

    apikoros

    March 29, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Sorry, sir… all I have are real ones (I like to think of myself as “the near occasion of sin” :-)

  60. 60.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    @Ruckus:

    not to speak for jwb, but that is the thing. do not force those kinds of choices. do not do it. it sucks for everybody involved. that is what unwritten rules are all about. avoiding that shit.

  61. 61.

    SIA

    March 29, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    First class post, Tom. Thank you.

  62. 62.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 29, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    @Phoebe: I am not quite sure of your question, and I am not a lawyer, but in this case, the judge HAS said, “No, it isn’t, jackass.” For now, anyway. So, the AG should be saying, “This is stayed for now.” Instead, he’s all in on, “We’re going forward with this.”

    Omnes? Did I get that right? I think honus above is saying something similar.

    @Little Boots: There! That fits on a bumper sticker, and it’s easy to understand. Who says the Dems suck at messaging? (Rhetorical question).

  63. 63.

    beltane

    March 29, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    I think a little refresher on the trial of Charles I might be in order. Autocratic rule has never played particularly well in the Anglo-Saxon world.

  64. 64.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    @apikoros: A worthy title, and calling.

    And with that, to all a good night.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Thanks for being the voice of reason here. As YAAL, I feel that you have a much better idea of how this is working out than most of us. But I wonder if the gov and his posse will see things the proper legal way in the end? They seem to be going for broke here, what is really going to stop them? A county judge? I’d bet (well nothing because that’s what spare change I have) they don’t think a county judge has that kind of power over them. They seem to be so nuts, how do you figure they might just accept this setback?

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    @Little Boots:
    Sorry, it’s a joke. Your comment, together with one referencing a governator, reminded me of a quote from The Terminator, which I modified very slightly into that comment.

  67. 67.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 29, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    Most sentient puddles

    Hey now!

  68. 68.

    jwb

    March 29, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    @Ruckus: Yup, and those with the pitchforks almost always lose.

  69. 69.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    destroyed by my lack of terminator knowledge … again!

  70. 70.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 29, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    @confitesprit: By the way, welcome. If someone bites, bite back. That’s the best advice I can give you.

  71. 71.

    Tom Levenson

    March 29, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    @confitesprit: I know I said goodnight, but before I really turn out hte lights — what asiangrrlMN said. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the pool.

  72. 72.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    great advice for every blog I’ve ever seen.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: I have been following and writing about this all day at the expense of my other responsibilities, so so let me see if I can still bang out something semi-coherent. Over the weekend, the FitzWalkers had a thin argument to make that the law had been “published” in a way that did not violate the injunction. They took it and ran with it. As of today, Judge Sumi said that they were wrong and made it clear that no one was to do nothing until at least Friday when the hearing will conclude. Everything, as far as I know, since that time has been people being blowhards. As long as it remains just talk, nothing will come of it. If someone moves forward, I would expect a STRONG reaction from the judge. Does this help?

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    @Little Boots:
    Agreed. But without discussing when and how we arrive at the tipping point I see no way to head it off. And I don’t mean at the lawyer level, I mean at the street level, the pitchfork level. Because it’s all fine and dandy to talk about it and relieve a little tension, someone somewhere will always misunderstand and take it too far. And unless that tipping point is actually reached, discussion and lawyering is almost always better.
    And BTW at this point I’d bet that pitchforks would not be anywhere enough.

  75. 75.

    Phoebe

    March 29, 2011 at 11:45 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: You’re absolutely right, procedurewise. What the AG, even in his jackass role, should be doing is appealing the decision, not ignoring it. This will be interesting.

  76. 76.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    it helps me. but these guys still seem determined to start withholding contributions at the new “legal” level. what happens when they start doing that? anything?

  77. 77.

    Calouste

    March 29, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Yeah, but only because Walker couldn’t find a drunken Dutch Communist to set fire to the state capitol.

    Slacker.

    You can look at it the other way. After the Reichstag fire, the suspects were tried in a civil court, and all but one of them were acquitted. And Göring did show up in the witness box.

    Bush/Cheney learned from that and handled things differently.

  78. 78.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 29, 2011 at 11:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes. That helps. Very much. Thank you. Now, give that mind of yours a break!

    @Phoebe: Interesting, yes, at the very least.

  79. 79.

    honus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:51 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: It’s not stayed, it’s enjoined, which is like stayed on stilts. The only proper response from the AG and any other practicing lawyer is “we will abide by the Court’s order.” If you do not abide by the order, you may well find yourself in front of the Court to explain why. There will be armed persons in the courtroom waiting to carry out the judge’s directions should you explanation not be satisfactory. That’s one reason why lawyers are unfailingly polite to judges even when they are reaming us.

  80. 80.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    @Ruckus:Winston Churchill, the old warmonger himself, once said that to “jaw-jaw was better than to war-war.”

  81. 81.

    Mark B

    March 29, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    @Honus

    Judges regularly jail lawyers who fail to follow the orders of the Court. Prosecutors and Attorneys General enjoy no immunity from such enforcement.

    Thanks Honus. So if the AG begins implementation of the law in violation of the injunction, he will be in contempt and subject to sanction? Is just saying he intends to violate the court order enough to get sanctioned? Would the attempt to backdoor publish the law be enough, combined with his statements? Or does he actually have to commit an act like start changing withholding on state employees paychecks? I know these aren’t easy questions, but I just wonder how far someone has to travel down the path of lawlessness to suffer sanctions, if one is a public official whose duty is to act according to the law.

    [edited for clarity]

  82. 82.

    jwb

    March 29, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    @Ruckus: Pitchforks have rarely ever been enough. At minimum, the successful use of pitchforks has almost always been backed explicitly or implicitly by a significant portion of the military.

    On the other hand, I suspect people talk about pitchforks around here rather than about taking up guns precisely to put a check on the fantasy.

  83. 83.

    Little Boots

    March 29, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    but he had his limit also. and I’m not saying we’re there yet, but we seem to be drifting toward this point where they simply don’t follow the law anymore. not sure what happens then.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 29, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    @asiangrrlMN: You are welcome. I am going to read for a while and then get some sleep.

  85. 85.

    Barb (formerly Gex)

    March 30, 2011 at 12:00 am

    @honus: Teatards are congenitally unable to be polite. Which is going to make this fun/frightening.

  86. 86.

    honus

    March 30, 2011 at 12:02 am

    @Mark B: “Is just saying he intends to violate the court order enough to get sanctioned?”

    Publicly saying you will ignore the Court’s order may well get you sanctioned, but probably won’t get you held in contempt. You would have to overtly act in derogation of the order for that.
    Sanctions are different than contempt. If I were to publicly broadcast that I intended to ignore a judge’s order, I would expect to be sanctioned; if she then ordered me stop such remarks and I did not do so, i would bring my toothbrush when I answered the show cause that would then issue. I could use the jail library to research my First Amendment argument.

  87. 87.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 30, 2011 at 12:02 am

    @honus: Thanks, honus. That helps, too. I thought the AG was being an ass, and you just underscored the point for me.

  88. 88.

    kdaug

    March 30, 2011 at 12:03 am

    @Roger Moore:

    Listen, and understand. Those Republicans are out there. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

    BG. Similarly.

    (ETA: Best goddamned show on TV in the last decade. Netflix em if you got em.)

  89. 89.

    Little Boots

    March 30, 2011 at 12:05 am

    @Barb (formerly Gex):

    you know what’s really, really weird? when your parents are teatards. it’s just weird. what are they talking about? when they say Michelle Bachmann is a really interesting candidate, what do you do with that?

  90. 90.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 30, 2011 at 12:09 am

    @Mark B:

    Or does he actually have to commit an act like start changing withholding on state employees paychecks?

    I’ve read elsewhere that union dues are not being deducted and forwarded, and the increased pension contributions are being deducted, effective with the April 22 paychecks.

  91. 91.

    Barb (formerly Gex)

    March 30, 2011 at 12:12 am

    @Little Boots: Love them as best you can, I guess. Some of the most powerful interests and the best marketing/psy-ops campaigns ever have been employed to exploit, well, white Christian Americans. Hopefully they’ll see before it is too late.

  92. 92.

    Hermione Granger-Weasley

    March 30, 2011 at 12:12 am

    @beltane:

    The wingnuts like to yak about Sharia law, but even that is preferable to no law at all.

    But…25% of All The Arabs There Are just democratically voted for shariah law in Egypt. It is not so bad….for muslims. ;)
    ;)
    @Tom Levenson: I’m going to go with Thom Jefferson.

    the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. that form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for others. for ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

    This a test of the House the Founders and Framers built.
    I have both hope and faith that they built well.

  93. 93.

    Little Boots

    March 30, 2011 at 12:14 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Secretary of Administration has said that he is doing that. not sure it’s true, but some people are saying that the law is in effect and they are acting on it. what’s nice about Omnes is he is extremely detail oriented, so I trust him on stuff like this. is that happening, Omnes.

  94. 94.

    Little Boots

    March 30, 2011 at 12:15 am

    @Barb (formerly Gex):

    yup, fair enough. you can’t not love them. but damn!

  95. 95.

    Roger Moore

    March 30, 2011 at 12:17 am

    @kdaug:
    Outstanding response. And yes, I am working through BSG on Netflix right now. It’s slow because my feline companion complains if I spend much time watching TV.

  96. 96.

    Barb (formerly Gex)

    March 30, 2011 at 12:17 am

    @Little Boots: Hey, for what it’s worth, they gave us at least one person that’s not susceptible to teatardism.

  97. 97.

    Martin

    March 30, 2011 at 12:18 am

    @Little Boots: Hey, you know who the Germans thought was a really interesting candidate?

  98. 98.

    Little Boots

    March 30, 2011 at 12:20 am

    @Martin:

    Marlene Dietrich? (please let it be Marlene, I love her.)

  99. 99.

    Vibrant Pantload, fka Studly Pantload

    March 30, 2011 at 12:27 am

    @Little Boots:

    Uh, keep your friends (and family) close, and your enemies (and teabagging relations) closer?

  100. 100.

    Little Boots

    March 30, 2011 at 12:28 am

    @Vibrant Pantload, fka Studly Pantload:
    heh.

  101. 101.

    Citizen Alan

    March 30, 2011 at 12:33 am

    @Little Boots:

    you know what’s really, really weird? when your parents are teatards. it’s just weird. what are they talking about? when they say Michelle Bachmann is a really interesting candidate, what do you do with that?

    I am mercifully blessed in that my parents (aged 77 and 81) are quietly liberal and have gotten more so with age. But I dropped a big ole turd in the punch bowl at a family get-together last spring during the BP spill fiasco when my sister’s Republican father-in-law started bitching about how “unfair” Obama was being to Tony Hayward. I looked him squarely in the eye and said, loud enough for the whole room to hear, that I thought Hayward ought to have been locked up in jail for negligent homicide but that I wouldn’t mind if he were just lynched by a mob of angry Louisianans.

    At this point, I am resolved that I will never bite my tongue in the face of Teatard bullshit again.

  102. 102.

    jwb

    March 30, 2011 at 12:34 am

    @Martin: You can’t Godwin a thread that was Godwined in the title.

  103. 103.

    mclaren

    March 30, 2011 at 12:35 am

    Oh, why not? Let’s just call Walker and his state Attorney General what they are: crypto-Nazis. And jail ’em. They’re engaged in sedition. Clap ’em in irons, dress ’em in orange jumpsuits, and perp-walk ’em to the nearest jail.

    One correction: Lucas Cranach was not a Baroque painter. He lived during the Renaissance. Baroque painters lived during the mid to late 17th and early to mid 18th century.

  104. 104.

    kdaug

    March 30, 2011 at 12:55 am

    @Roger Moore: Fair enough. Here’s a garnish.

    Enjoy.

  105. 105.

    kdaug

    March 30, 2011 at 1:05 am

    @asiangrrlMN:

    By the way, welcome. If someone bites, bite back.

    And have Geoffrey bring you your fighting trousers.

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 30, 2011 at 1:37 am

    Please note that the speaker quoted there is an Asst. Attorney General. As in a lawyer. As in an officer of the court.

    This sack of shit should be disbarred, at once, and his life as an attorney destroyed.

  107. 107.

    The Raven

    March 30, 2011 at 2:57 am

    It’s not the Republican machine; it’s the fascist machine that has taken over the Republican Party. I wonder what the people in charge–the Koch Brothers, and probably a few others, call themselves. Remember that this is a national machine: Wisconsin is the point because the people in charge want to capture a critical swing state for the Republican Party. These people want to buy the 2012 general election, and they may succeed.

  108. 108.

    Robert Waldmann

    March 30, 2011 at 2:59 am

    Isn’t the correct term for a “Pre-publication update” a “downdate” ?

    Walker is so useful that if he didn’t exist he would have to be invented. I am beginning to suspect that he is a brilliant Democratic mole. I’d be very very pleased with myself if I had done one tenth as much to revive organized labor in the USA. Now he seems to be moving on to an effort to teach people the importance of the rule of law. Next I guess he will order the Wisconsin national guard to invade Venezuela or something (but my feeble imagination is just no where near up to the task of imagining how far he will go — I’ll just say that if I were a Madison capitol building building fire marshall I’d be verrrrry worried).

    He almost let the mask slip in his conversation with the fake David Koch NY-26 Green party candidate.

  109. 109.

    Ruckus

    March 30, 2011 at 3:15 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Maybe given the circumstances WC could be given a small pass on the war stuff. He was after all looking down the barrel of an awful lot of guns.
    The problem is as I see it sometimes you can talk and talk till you’re blue in the face but if your opponent is fucking nuts and totally politically deaf/stupid then your choices narrow. That’s where the rethugs are now. They have forced their hand and because they think they can they will continue to. Until they are stopped.
    The rethugs are like a damaged nuclear reactor. There is no good left in the system and getting too close can cause much damage and destruction. They just keep spewing crap that has long lasting problems until they can finally be contained. I just hope the law we have left and public opinion is enough to contain them.

  110. 110.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    March 30, 2011 at 3:38 am

    If it were some other country where the executive branch was saying ‘Stuff you!’ to the juridical branch, Americans would be calling it a coup.

  111. 111.

    Calouste

    March 30, 2011 at 3:57 am

    @Sm*t Cl*de:

    US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said just before the imposition of a state of emergency that “the United States would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means… Pakistan needs to prepare for and hold free and fair elections.”[11] After the declaration she said that she was “deeply disturbed.” Rice also said to media that “It is in the best interests of Pakistan and the Pakistani people for there to be a prompt return to the constitutional course, for there to be an affirmation that elections will be held for a new parliament and for all parties to act with restraint in what is obviously a very difficult situation.” White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe called the action “very disappointing” and added that Musharraf “needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office.”

    2007 Pakistani state of emergency and sacking of Supreme Court

  112. 112.

    MikeTheZ

    March 30, 2011 at 4:22 am

    Ken Cuccinelli strongly disapproves of this image and demands the young lady cover herself at once!

  113. 113.

    klem

    March 30, 2011 at 6:49 am

    Tom Levenson, your posts totally suck and are horribly written. I have no idea why John Cole asked you to blog on this wonderful page but I hope he acknowledges the error of his ways and cuts you loose, you fucking elitist prick.

  114. 114.

    Ash Can

    March 30, 2011 at 7:28 am

    @klem: LOL! Your comedic timing is very good.

  115. 115.

    drkrick

    March 30, 2011 at 9:16 am

    @Citizen Alan: I’ve got to ask – what was his response?

  116. 116.

    Chris

    March 30, 2011 at 9:23 am

    @Ruckus:

    How many times has history gotten to the pitchfork option?
    Many, many times.
    And it’s always nasty and almost always fairly bloody.

    I’d like to point out that all-out revolutions tend to be a weapon of last resort (though riots, rock-throwing and smaller-scale revolts occur more frequently).

    France in the late 1700s had endured lots, lots and lots of divine right of kings bullshit – being poor, being oppressed, being drafted to be a chess piece in wars, being caught in the middle every time the monarchy and the noblemen decided to go at each other, and many, many more indignities. Think just how long the French monarchic system existed, and just how much damage was done in that time, before people finally rose up and said “fuck it, cut off their heads.”

    People who criticize revolutions because of how bloody they are don’t seem to realize that people are perfectly aware of that and aren’t any happier about it than they are. They do it because they’ve been backed up against a wall and literally don’t see any other way out.

  117. 117.

    rikryah

    March 30, 2011 at 9:23 am

    time to find them in contempt

  118. 118.

    asiangrrlMN

    March 30, 2011 at 10:14 am

    @kdaug: That NEVER gets old.

    *Pours one on the curb for morzer*

  119. 119.

    Lynn Dee

    March 30, 2011 at 10:26 am

    @trollhattan: Activist judge? Or just judge?

    I mean, it is unthinkable that any judge should let stand such defiance of his or her orders.

  120. 120.

    kindness

    March 30, 2011 at 10:30 am

    Dear Tom,

    You might want to try doing bhong rips when you come home from work rather than alcohol. It’s so much mellower. Just sayin’.

  121. 121.

    bill

    March 30, 2011 at 10:32 am

    @Little Boots: And the funny thing is, even at a 60 percent tax rate, the guy is still rich.

  122. 122.

    mds

    March 30, 2011 at 10:37 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Yeah, but only because Walker couldn’t find a drunken Dutch Communist to set fire to the state capitol.

    The scariest part of that analogy is that it wasn’t for lack of considering it.

    @Little Boots:

    you know what’s really, really weird? when your parents are teatards. it’s just weird. what are they talking about? when they say Michelle Bachmann is a really interesting candidate, what do you do with that?

    Bite my tongue frequently. Put off visiting as long as possible. Cry a lot. Repeatedly consider taking up drinking. Occasionally wish that their incontinent, illiterate babblings about the Rapture were true and that they’d hurry up and beam away, since that way they’d shut up about their goddamn stupid fundamentalist protofascist horseshit, and no longer be voting to turn their grandson’s world into a hellhole out of Torquemada’s wet dreams.

    … Wait, was that a rhetorical question?

  123. 123.

    Bullsmith

    March 30, 2011 at 11:06 am

    Here’s q quote in today’s Journal Sentinel that seems to indicate the judge’s TRO will be ignored again:

    In a later statement, Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh said: “We don’t believe that the court can enjoin non-parties. Whether the Department of Administration or other state officers choose to comply with any direction issued by Judge Sumi is up to them.”

    It’s beyond brazen. It’s an open attempt to undermine the basic institutions of democracy. They could pass the thing again with 24 hours notice and render Judge Sumi irrelevant, but that’s not the fascist way.

    Really, hate to use the word, but look at that quote. This crap they’re pulling is incredibly harmful to the rule of law.

  124. 124.

    Stefan

    March 30, 2011 at 11:29 am

    My husband spent his high school years in Venezuela as the son of an exec for a large multi-national corporation. He says it was similar to being under house arrest in that you were always vulnerable to shakedowns from the various police forces (when you don’t pay government employees well they tend to work on commission) alongside the usual threats that come from living as a well-off person in a country with huge income disparities. The ability to walk down the street unmolested depends on a fair amount of goodwill from society at large. Throw that away and it’s only a matter of time before a Chavez or a Castro comes along to afflict the comfortable.

    I also spent some formative years in a similar position to your husband. There was no ability to walk down the street unmolested, because we simply never walked down the street: we were driven everywhere by an armed driver and a bodyguard (who would always helpfully check under the car for a bomb before we got in) from mall to country club to walled compound to walled school. I can’t remember ever taking a simple unaccompanied stroll in all the time I lived there.

  125. 125.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 30, 2011 at 11:32 am

    @Bullsmith: I don’t like to abuse the term fascist either, but as you note, it is not abuse in this context. Omnes is there, and can offer much better information, but the blowhardiness to date certainly reeks of a naked attempt to undermine the basic, fundamental institutions of democracy. Fascist fits here.

    Now, should they act on that thought, they will find out that, here in the US, we don’t do things that way. Courts can, and regularly do, issue orders that bind non-parties who are ancillary to the enjoined parties. Wish I could be a fly on the wall Friday, heh.

  126. 126.

    Nutella

    March 30, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Apparently the whole problem here is Judge Sumi’s choice of cocktail parties. Or so the local Repubs say.

  127. 127.

    Hungry Joe

    March 30, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    So many of us away from the word “fascist” because it calls up images of black shirts, brown shirts, swastikas, and a shrieking little psychopath with a funny mustache. But that was just the manner in which fascism expressed itself in mid-20th century Europe. Go back to the actual definition, per The Man himself, Benito M., —

    “Fascism should more properly called corporatism because it is the merging of state and corporate power”

    — and ask yourself if this isn’t exactly what’s being expressed right here, right now.

  128. 128.

    lllphd

    March 30, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    O. MY. GAWD!

    this has to be a scam; honestly, the cheek? someone tell me this is a scam.

    the sad thing is, it’s all too believable. it would be just like the GOP to “apologize” with all that snark.

  129. 129.

    lllphd

    March 30, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    @lllphd:
    ps. shouldashouldashoulda credited h/t to http://www.first-draft.com; good folks.

  130. 130.

    PWL

    March 30, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    Huh??? I thought these Repubs were all about the “rule of law,” and the Constitution. At least that’s what they keep yappin’ on about.

    But I guess ‘taint so , if the “rule of Law” don’t go their way. Then they act like a ten-year old being told to do something, throwing a temper tantrum and screaming, “No, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!”

  131. 131.

    Basilisc

    March 30, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    “Justice Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” – Andrew Jackson, who although a Democrat was a South Carolinian, therefore a real American.

    That had to do with the wussy SC liberals trying to prevent the govt from evicting Indians from land that belonged to real Americans (and their slaves). Or would, once they got rid of the Indians.

    Actually Wikipedia doubts he said it, but I’m sure he at least thought it.

  132. 132.

    Triassic Sands

    March 30, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    Suddenly I have a new favorite judge. I would have preferred sanctions now, rather than later — because the Republicans didn’t misunderstand, they simply ignored the order — but judges can’t always act like blog commenters want them to. Now, I hope the Thugs continue with their antidemocratic BS and she gets to toss them in jail for contempt.

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