More Shocking Revelations on Judge Who Halted Wisconsin John Doe Probe

[G_j]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/27/1302368/-More-Shocking-Revelations-on-Judge-Who-Halted-Wisconsin-John-Doe-Probe?detail=email

After chasing down a story on the Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity and posting a diary, I checked my KosMail. Ericlewis0 sent me a link to a shocking new revelation about Judge Randa, the federal judge who recently shut down the John Doe Probe about illegal coordination between campaigns and dark money astroturf groups like AFP and Club for Growth.
We've already discovered that Randas wife is a frequent donor to Walkers campaigns (less than $100 each time). We also know that Randas Judicial Assistant is the wife of Scott Walkers lawyer, Steven Biskupic. We also know that Randa is a member of the RW Federalist Society.

Today, however, we know that Randa has been attending junkets paid for by RW billionaire funded groups.

The federal judge who ordered a halt to Wisconsin's "John Doe" criminal investigation into spending during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections has regularly attended all-expenses paid "judicial junkets" funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and other ideological and corporate interests.
Hmmmm. Koch-funded Club for Growth was one of the organizations bringing the case to court. One would think that Randa should have recused himself from even hearing a case brought by a group from which he has received so much. Apparently he chose not to which casts a poor light on his ruling that favors the dark money organizations that fund his frequent junkets.

[Turbineguy]

1. Can this Judge be impeached?

Or something?

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

2. Rudolph Randa has a long history of unethical conduct, poor judgment, and reversals

from the

from the Above the Law website: Judge of the Day: Rudolph Randa

His try-to-sound-positive Wikipedia page called this a "Significant" ruling"

In 1995, Randa ruled that the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act was unconstitutional in banning "nonviolent, physical obstruction of reproductive health services clinics."

Only problem was that Randa's ruling was reversed by the Seventh Circuit.

In 2009 Randa ruled Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act unconstitutional. However, in 2010 the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Randa again and found Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act to be constitutional.

Are we getting a pattern yet?

From the Cap Times:

Judge Rudolph Randa has a history of controversial decisions

In a case that also centered on government ethics, Randa sentenced Georgia Thompson to 18 months in prison after a jury convicted the Doyle administration official of improperly steering a state contract to a political ally. After several months behind bars, Thompson was freed when the 7th District Court of Appeals tossed out the conviction, calling the evidence “beyond thin.”

Finally, in a case the Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear argued on June 2, Randa ruled last year that those seeking damages against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in sexual abuse cases could not force the Church to dip into nearly $60 million that its former archbishop, Timothy Dolan, had transferred into a segregated cemetery fund...

Randa ruled that once the money had been put into the cemetery trust, plaintiffs could not gain access to it. To do so, he wrote, would “substantially burden the (Church’s) free exercise of religion.”

[CanonRay]

3. Can the Wisconsin bar association do anything?

Is this guy just above the law and beyond ethical considerations because he's a Federal judge?

[The CCC]

6. Can the Wisconsin bar association do anything?

The Wisconsin Bar association can not do anything to this Federal judge. That is up to US House of Representatives to start an impeachment inquiry and trial in US Senate if impeached for removal from office. Good luck with the US House of Representatives being controlled by the Republicans.

[justhanginon]

4. Does this get covered in Wisconsin daily

papers are is it just ignored like happens so often? I hope they are running stories on this as it involves what seems to be the corrupting of the their judiciary. That I would think is damned important to the citizens of Wisconsin. If not, it certainly should be.

[WillyT]

5. Huge K & R !!!

[malaise]

7. Seriously

How corrupt is the political system?