Five Things to Know About the Scott Walker John Doe Ruling [View all]

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http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/07/12887/five-things-know-about-scott-walker-john-doe-ruling

"The Wisconsin Supreme Court has single-handedly rewritten the state’s limits on money in politics, rendering the state’s disclosure laws and contribution limits meaningless, and opening the door to unlimited funds directly from corporations and foreign firms.

"In a 4-2 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Court's conservative majority ended the John Doe probe into whether Governor Scott Walker illegally coordinated with supposedly "independent" dark money groups during the recall elections. The Court declared that any coordination that did occur didn't violate the law, since it only involved so-called "issue ads" that stopped short of expressly saying "vote for" or "vote against" a candidate.

In doing so, the Court's majority overturned years of precedent and practice in Wisconsin, issuing a decision that might be used to strike down campaign finance laws across the country. Previously, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice's campaign was fined $60,000 for engaging in the exact same type of issue ad coordination as Walker.

Justice Shirley Abrahamson, writing in dissent, called the majority's decision "an unprecedented and faulty interpretation of Wisconsin's campaign finance law and of the First Amendment." Justice Patrick Crooks' dissent warned that the majority's decision "will profoundly affect the integrity of our electoral process."

Besides handing Walker a political victory just days after he announced his presidential run, the ruling eviscerates in Wisconsin campaign finance law--and could threaten similar limits around the country. Here are five things to know about the decision..."

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