Court overturns blocking of Walker campaign probe

CHICAGO — A federal appeals panel on Wednesday overturned a lower court's ruling blocking an investigation into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and sympathetic conservative groups for alleged improper campaign coordination.

The ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, however, won't immediately restart the investigation.

But the court's opinion comes at a politically sensitive moment for Walker who is knotted in a tough re-election battle against Democrat Mary Burke and is pondering a potential 2016 run for the White House.

Prosecutors have said Walker is not a target of the investigation. No one has been charged in the probe.

At the heart of the case, prosecutors from five Wisconsin counties are raising questions about whether Walker and his top aides circumvented state law to raise money and coordinate spending by a dozen outside groups during the 2010 recall election. The recall was spurred after Walker successfully shepherded legislation that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public employees in the state.

Prosecutors say independent groups' fundraising and spending amounted to in-kind campaign contributions that should have been reported to the state Government Accountability Board. They argued that coordination between independent groups and campaigns results in the groups being considered campaign subcommittees, which would have forced the groups to report their spending and contributions.

The Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group at the center of the tussle, counters that it didn't expressly ask voters to elect or defeat a candidate, so its actions were permissible. The prosecutors asked the appeals court to dismiss a federal lawsuit by the Wisconsin Club for Growth, which contends its free speech rights are being violated in the probe.

In the opinion, Judge Frank Easterbrook called a lower court's decision to block the investigation "an abuse of discretion." He also batted away the Wisconsin Club for Growth lawsuit, noting that the Wisconsin prosecutors in the probe "possess qualified immunity from liability in damages" in their role as public servants.

Easterbrook added, "Plaintiff's claim to constitutional protection for raising funds to engage issue advocacy coordinated with a politician's campaign has not been established 'beyond debate' To the contrary, there is lively debate among judges and academic analysts."

Even with the ruling, the investigation won't restart immediately, because a state judge in January quashed subpoenas requested by prosecutors. That ruling is still under appeal at the state level.

The 7th Circuit also refused to make public documents related to the case that a coalition of media groups had demanded.

Even before the 7th Circuit heard the case earlier this month, Walker downplayed the importance of how it would rule.

"The bottom line is last year a court of appeals judge here in the state of Wisconsin — highly respected and non-partisan judge with no connection to me whatsoever — dismissed the arguments at the state level," Walker said during a campaign event earlier this month.