Wisconsin Gives Foxconn Preferential Judicial Treatment
We all know that illegal, unethical, and criminal behavior usually gets a free pass from the judicial system these days. All we have to do is look at the fact that no senior executive at any Wall Street firm has even come before a court, much less been charged, for their actions before, during, and after the financial crisis, behavior even Janet Yellen calls “egregious and unacceptable”. But the despicable Scott Walker is trying to take this one step farther, eliminating layers of judicial oversight in order to protect his pet project, the Foxconn plant in Wisconsin.
In addition to bilking Wisconsin taxpayers of nearly $3 billion in taxes over the next 15 years, Walker plans to give preferential judicial treatment to Foxconn as well. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a new law will eliminate some of the judicial oversight of Foxconn and funnel all legal actions against it directly to the State Supreme Court, which Walker has already packed with his cronies. “First, the legislation would expedite appeals of Foxconn-related lawsuits, creating a path that would likely get any case more quickly to the state Supreme Court, where conservatives have a solid majority. Second, the measure requires higher courts to take appeals of a trial court order in a Foxconn case even if the order is not final. In general, appellate courts have to take appeals of the final judgments and orders made by trial courts but get to decide whether to take appeals of preliminary orders. Finally, the trial court rulings in that litigation would be automatically stayed until the higher court decided what to do.” In addition, the law would exempt Foxconn from certain environmental rules.
The implications are enormous, especially with the requirement that lower court rulings are automatically stayed until the Supreme Court decides what to do. Under its present structure, dominated by conservatives, the court will no doubt always side with Foxconn. But looking farther down the line, there may be situations where the court simply wants to avoid the political impact of making a certain decision and will be happy to let Foxconn keep on doing what its doing while it delays interminably in deciding whether to hear the case.
A NY Times article had a story the other day about an Alabama man who had been held for 10 years without ever getting a trial. Now, in Wisconsin, the legislature is trying to enshrine that two-tiered justice system into law, allowing Foxconn’s cases to be heard and determined faster and more quickly than the citizens of Wisconsin themselves.
When Republicans talk about returning power to the states, as they are doing with Cassidy-Graham, remember that this does not mean the power returns to the citizens of that state. We see that with GOP legislatures blocking cities from raising the minimum wage or forcing transgender students into bathrooms not of their choice. On the contrary, when citizens actions interfere with the business interests that control the legislature in those states, in this case the Koch brothers, the citizens will always lose.