3/7/2012
Lefty Wisconsin Judge Rejects Voter ID Law in Scott Walker Recall Election
Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:21 am
But thatÂ’s not the craziest part. The craziest part is that
he made this ruling despite the fact that he signed a petition to recall Scott Walker:
Nearly four months before he signed off on the poorly edited order granting a temporary injunction against WisconsinÂ’s new voter identification law, Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan scribbled his name on another important legal document:
A petition urging the recall of Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
Walker signed the voter ID legislation last year and is a defendant in the current case.
“The very fact that Dane County Judge David Flanagan signed a petition to recall Governor Walker calls (Tuesday’s) court proceedings regarding Wisconsin’s voter ID law into question,” said Republican Party spokesman Ben Sparks in a statement.
The petition to recall Walker that the good judge signed was being circulated by his wife.
So, IÂ’m a judge in your lawsuit, and I have signed a document trying to have you recalled from office. And I rule that the law passed to protect against voter fraud in your election cannot be enforced.
How do you feel I am acting in that situation? Pretty fair, right?
But, but, itÂ’s not like the judge is just a partisan hack, right? I mean, his ruling is still quality legal scholarship, isnÂ’t it? Replete with careful citations to the applicable laws and sound arguments?
Eh, not so much:
Statehouse staffers spent Tuesday afternoon counting the mistakes in FlanaganÂ’s 11-page order on voter ID.
The most notable is Flanagan’s reference to “Justice William Scalia.” That would be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Several sentences in the decision are garbled.
Flanagan refers to the wrong section of the state Constitution when he says it “sets forth explicitly the requirement for eligibility to vote, Art. I, Sect. 2 (4).”
The article and section cited by Flanagan deals, instead, with the prohibition of slavery. He meant to refer to Article III.
Cullen Werwie, spokesman for the governor, took note of the discrepancies: “Our legal team is still trying to locate Justice William Scalia.”
A person more cynical than I am might say that this is absolute hackery. That itÂ’s abuse of a position to win by any means possible.
And that person would be right.
Why, even William Scalia would agree.