Fair Elections?  Not in Lister’s Court

I have a few more details about this case:

A judge’s apparently unprecedented decision Saturday to order a halt to political ads before hearing from the ad’s sponsors drew immediate criticism as an unfair restraint of free speech.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Lister defended his emergency order, which was requested via telephone Friday by state Democratic Party attorneys representing an Assembly candidate in a hotly contested race in western Wisconsin.

Here are a few facts to keep in mind:

1) The judge was appointed by Doyle in July.
2) The judge practices in Jackson County, as does the plaintiff, Democrat candidate Radcliffe.
3) Lister gave money to both of the liberal candidates for the Supreme Court in the past two races.  Bear in mind that the Coalition for America’s Families was active in both of those races. 

Clearly, this is a judge who is a democratic activist.  Did it have an impact on his decision?  Let’s take a look. 

The first thing that jumps out is the timing of the case.  Here’s the timeline:

1) The case was heard in Lister’s courtroom on Friday.
2) The order was faxed from Radcliffe’s law office to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin at 9:49 am Saturday.
3) At 10:39 am, the Judge called Coalition for America’s Families.  This was their first notification.  You can hear the time stamp and the Judge also gives the time.  Here’s the recording of the judge’s voicemail.

As you can hear, the judge is telling them that he has already signed an injunction and scheduled the hearing for noon on MONDAY.  Obviously, the election is on Tuesday.  Apparently, the judge and everyone else can work on a Saturday morning but not on a Saturday afternoon in the interest of fair elections.  Furthermore, the judge clearly signed the injunction without even bothering to pick up the phone to get the defendant’s side. 

In case you hadn’t guessed, this information was leaked to me.  Yes, it is only one side of the story, but they have the documentation, recordings, and time stamps to back it up. 

The merits of the case are clearly on the defendant’s side, but I won’t go into that at this point.  Obviously, the judge didn’t care much about the merits either. 

This looks like a pure political hatchet job by a bunch of Democrat hacks.  Wisconsin should be ashamed that this kind of stuff is going on. 

UPDATE: The judge had a hearing today and renewed his ban on the ad.  The hearing was originally scheduled until Monday until the judge got heat.  This is going to be overturned, but it won’t matter.  The judge has succeeded in squashing the free speech of the side he doesn’t like until it’s too late.  Abuse of power?  Oh yeah.

Posted by Owen at 2116 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin