The new year is less than three weeks old and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is at it again. This time it is an evaluation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Here is what WMC says about the evaluation:
A new independent study reveals that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has a clear 4-3 activist majority willing to expand liability and overturn acts of the Legislature.
The 'independent' study was conducted by the Judicial Evaluation Institute and Sequoyah Information Systems.
This is Sequoyah Information Systems, according to a report by Michael Scherer from The Nation September 2, 2002:
an obscure Oklahoma company called Sequoyah Information Systems, which produces "evaluations" of judicial performance that brand judges as pro- or antibusiness based on a selection of their past rulings. Founded by Marc Nuttle, a conservative activist who ran Pat Robertson's 1988 presidential campaign, the group makes sure its evaluations grab headlines wherever they are released, most recently causing a splash in Pennsylvania, where an evaluation condemned the losing Democratic candidate as a potential liability to the state's economy. Through much of the late 1990s the surveys were produced with the help of two other political operatives: Ron Howell, a former Koch executive and lobbyist, and the political consulting firm run by Tom Cole, the former chief of staff for the Republican National Committee.
Last year I took note of one of Sequoyah's fronts. publishing their Wacky Label press release only to discover that I was duped when my post received this comment:
You might be interested in knowing that M-LAW, its founder, and the entire "Wacky Label" contest is just a fraud. These folks were investigated by the IRS and their tax exempt status was denied amid findings that they were just a front group for big tobacco and the insurance industry. They also conduct biased 'judicial evaluations' and other publicity stunts, coincidently enough, only during election years.
It isn't really funny if it is just lies made up as part of a inside-the-beltway PR stunt.
And for a scholarly opinion of these folks, look at CHANGING THE RULES BY CHANGING THE PLAYERS: THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE IN STATE JUDICIAL ELECTIONS BY John D. Echeverria in the New York University Environmental Law Journal:
Key developments discussed in this article include the following:
• A little-known Oklahoma-based group with close ties to Koch Industries, a large, privately held company with interests in oil and gas, chemicals, and agriculture, has organized a nationwide program to promote the election of state judges sympathetic to business interests in environmental and other cases. (blog note: For great insight, go to page 9, The Oklahoma Project)
It is also interesting that no anti-trust legislation via Globilization is neglected by Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Yes these International Corporations that can violate workers rights and bust unions for greed at less wages and benefits. How much monitoring is done on Temp Agencies who have taken over for Wisconsin Work-Force Development on "outsourcing" ideas and excuses for "unskilled workers".
Posted by: Michael Fermanich | January 19, 2007 at 02:50 PM