Wisconsin Supreme Court Stops Unlawful “John Doe” Investigations

Patriotic citizens have won a great victory!

The Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with the Constitution over the novel theories of regulators when it issued a powerful ruling to terminate the menacing “John Doe” investigation. The court wrote that the attacks on conservatives were “without foundation in reason and law.” The justices also expressed amazement at the expansive searches of email providers that swept up millions of private communications, and dismay at the pre-dawn armed raids on family homes. They ordered an immediate end to the abusive investigation, and the return of our seized materials.

Here is how the Wall Street Journal editorialized on the ruling:

The larger victory here is for democracy. Prosecutors tried to shut down the speech of their political opponents, but they failed thanks to the willingness of some of those targets to fight back.

Particular credit goes to Eric O’Keefe, director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, who took a personal risk by breaking the John Doe’s gag order to go on the record with us in 2013 about the subpoenas. His legal challenges in Wisconsin and in a federal lawsuit, aided by Kansas City law firm Graves Garrett and David Rivkin of BakerHostetler, brought the constitutional issues into public focus.

“It is fortunate, indeed, for every other citizen of this great State who is interested in the protection of fundamental liberties that the special prosecutor chose as his targets innocent citizens who had both the will and the means to fight the unlimited resources of an unjust prosecution,” Justice Gableman writes.

Yet even after their resounding defeat, prosecutors are refusing to return possessions they seized, publicly criticizing the court decision, and defending their unlawful actions. Worse yet, they are asking the court to reconsider its decision. They want to escape the court’s demand that they destroy all copies of materials in their bloated files, and threatening to petition the U.S. Supreme Court.

The newspapers in Wisconsin, like their prosecutor friends, have conceded nothing since the win in the Supreme Court. These “progressives” do not trust the American people. Fortunately, the American people do not trust them or anyone else who denies us our heritage of self-governance.

The tyranny of the prosecutors in Wisconsin provides insight into the horrors that will follow across the country—that is if we do not expose and punish their conduct. Our Wisconsin allies are on offense entirely now. They are suing an agency called the Government Accountability Board to end its reign as a speech regulator. And they are backing a civil rights lawsuit by Cindy Archer against the Milwaukee prosecutors who abused her.

Board member Eric O’Keefe writes this about the Wisconsin conflict:

“I was shocked when I read the eight-page subpoena and secrecy order presented to me on October 3, 2013. It made clear that a sweeping domestic spying operation has taken root in Wisconsin. It also exposed the belief of government agents that the political activities of conservatives—including our speech—should be criminalized. Then I received the worst news of all, which is that my friends and colleagues who did more than anyone to help preserve Governor Walker’s reforms endured abusive pre-dawn raids on their homes while women and children were sleeping.

“They intended to imprison us—not because of legal mistakes; we did not make any. They wanted to imprison us because of our effectiveness at delivering messages to voters that cause them to question progressivism. Our effectiveness means progressives are unable to retain full control of state government. This offends them and makes them angry. So they use all available means—including our own government—to attack us.

“My current litigation has the potential to uncover details of the actions, motives, and intentions of the government agents who abused us. This entire case provides a real-time civics lesson for the entire country. We will now see what happens to government officials who view conservative activists as agents of evil, and who wield tremendous power in ways that threaten to bring tyranny to our country.”

Read more about this dramatic fight at: www.wisconsinjohndoe.com