Audit secret political campaign groups? Hell no, let's audit sexually assaulted women, instead
http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/audit-secret-political-campaign-groups-hell-no-lets-audit-sexual
It's getting to be one hell of a country, these United States. Compare and contrast the following two developments in politics and law. First, in Washington, D.C.:
* A panel of 12 men on the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a bill that could allow the IRS to audit survivors of rape or incest because they used their contraceptive health care coverage.
Meanwhile, here in Wisconsin:
* According to news reports, subpoenas issued in the the John Doe investigation into campaign spending and fundraising by conservative political groups in state recall elections of the governor and other mostly Republican lawmakers were quashed in a sealed ruling by the appeals court judge presiding over the case.
The conservative political action groups that had been served with subpoenas reportedly proclaimed that their right to keep their activities secret is now "vindicated." Quite the proclamation, given that those groups essentially outed themselves (see earlier blog at URL below) n this case before apparently asserting that their Fourth Amendment right to privacy (mind you, not secrecy but only privacy) was being trampled. In any rational legal system, however, you don't get to kill your parents and then earn the court's mercy because you're an orphan.
...
These two cross-eyed developments Friday all add up to this: if you're a well-heeled conservative political action group in Wisconsin, you're apparently closer to the day when you can pretty much spend your fat wad of cash anonymously and however you like, influencing elections and cooperating with campaigns in return for unknown favors, without fear that the IRS or anyone else will be legally able to check out your operation. But if you're a woman anywhere in the US who was sexually assaulted and you used your health insurance for contraceptive services, you apparently are closer to the day when you may be subjected to government audit. Because, hey, you may be a victim but you'll have no right to privacy when it comes to issues of reproductive choice.