Sanctions Motion From CEI Still in Play, Original Subpoena not Withdrawn
Following the pledge in a May 13 letter to CEI’s attorney, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker (AG Walker) has withdrawn the District of Columbia subpoena action against the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), yet the original Virgin Islands subpoena remains, meaning AG Walker can move at any moment to continue his unconstitutional intimidation campaign against the free market group and others who oppose his view of climate change. CEI’s motion for sanctions against AG Walker is pending in court and the group continues its pushback against the AG’s wrongdoing.
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman said, “CEI is going forward with our motion for sanctions because Walker’s withdrawal only strengthens our claim that this subpoena was a constitutional outrage from the very beginning, violating our right to free speech and our donors’ right to confidentiality, and threatening the right of all Americans to express views that go against some party line. This subpoena was an abuse of process, plain and simple, and we’re determined to see that Walker faces sanctions for his illegal actions that he refuses to recognize.”
See the notice of termination here.
See more about CEI’s climate subpoena fight here.
Now they need to compensate CEI and the others for costs incurred.
Agreed. There needs to be a cost for persecution.
But how to get Walker to pay and not the taxpayers? There has to be some personal cost to those that do this sort of thing.
The personal cost will be losing his position in the next election after his malfeance costs the government a sizable sum.
The hope that he will face charges for violating civil rights under the Klan acts is foolish under the current administration, and quite likely the next as well. Even with a sympathetic DOJ, the stakes here are too low for any serious penalty.
The taxpayers either voted for this guy, or they voted for the guy who appointed him.
That sizable sum will be buried in the budget somewhere and the tax payers will never connect it to this issue.
Couldn’t agree more. I don’t care what side you are on this issue, but going after people because they disagree with you is reprehensible. This is what the complaints of all such witch hunts. Honestly, I keep waiting for us skeptics to have to wear scarlet ‘S’ on our shirts, although Superman wore one, and we’re right… Seriously, though, this kind of thing really scares me that we could be heading that way.
V.eng;
AG Walker had no jurisdiction to issue the subpoena in the first place, and without that jurisdiction he acted as a private person acting on his own private beliefs and the Virgin Islands is not liable for those actions, he is.
For the scholars, how to impeach a territorial AG and bar him from further office? It’s the only proper outcome.
“But how to get Walker to pay and not the taxpayers?”
Here an idea: for any case where a State gets to compensate a citizen because of illegal/criminal behavior, the heads of said State is directly, personally responsible without limitation, and must reimburse the State except if he tries another person in his administration, who gets to reimburse the State.
His personal security team would act as guardians to make sure he doesn’t try to escape.
These actions by the AG of the US Virgin Islands constitute Malfeasance in Office – the AG can be sued by his victims and if the lawsuit is successful he could be removed from office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malfeasance_in_office.
“Malfeasance in office, or official misconduct, is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a for cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election.”
In Commonwealth countries it is termed Misfeasance in Public Office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfeasance_in_public_office
When do we get the class action suit as well?
I am in!
I feel assaulted and demand reparations.
We skeptics have finally joined the “victim class.” It’s about time.
ResourceGuy
As entertaining as it would be to see these clowns try to justify their behaviour in court we shall only get them in such a position if we Organise and Fund such actions ourselves. And Elect.
Currently The Alarmists have sole access to government funds and the financial legacies of the giant capitalist funds, such as Rockefeller, so it will be up to us to make them accountable.
That means organisation and to continue to fund Mr Watts, Jo Nova and all the individuals and organisations that are demanding that scientific observations and proper, normal scientific scepticism is the mean by which Climate is measured. As distinct from the ‘anything goes and you better shut up and not criticise’ attitude which prevails in The Climate Issue.
Organise,Fund and Elect. Any chance we get and what we can afford. It is up to us.
SLAPP him silly, CEI.
Glad to hear some good news.
To: Claude E. Walker, Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands
Freedom denial is what you stand for.
John
Hit Walker and the rest of the gang of 20 with a civil rights suit, and name the Rockefeller family fund and others in it. Bankrupt the yahoos.
Quite doable under 42USC1983and/or1985.
Read Walkers Bio
http://usvidoj.codemeta.com/DivisionContent_1.php?divId=84
now there is someone promoted beyond his abilities.
I see that next to his Bio (a classic super-bureaucrat), it states:
“Can the Office of the Attorney General provide me with advice or an Opinion on a legal matter?
No. By law, the Office of the Attorney General may only issue advice or opinions to the the governor, legislature, and any department, board, commission, agency, instrumentality, or officer of the Government of the Virgin Islands regarding legal matters.”
From Walker’s bio: Shortly thereafter, he moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as Enforcement Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Regulatory Enforcement,…….”
interesting: An EPA henchmen.
This was never his own initiative, they probably drew lots.
Does he just happen to be the only non-white in the Group of 20? Or do the racist progressives still want the black man to do all their dirty work?
Can Anthony maybe ask a few of our learn’d readers to offer occasional essays on such legal topics?
I have in mind such excellent commentators as JD_Ohio, who I have read regularly at Lucia’s Blackboard.
what did we win, Johnny?
Going to need disbarrment hearing here or this type of threat, harassment and suppression of free speech will absolutely continue.
Claude E. Walker, Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands IS part of the green mafia machine, seeking targets to extort money through dubious law fare and hoping the fear factor will cause capitulation – in other words LOTS OF MONEY!
What a crook!!!!
(y) 🙂
[…] yet the original Virgin Islands subpoena remains, meaning AG Walker can move at any moment to continue his unconstitutional intimidation campaign against the free market group[…]
Presumably this individual can carry on using the full (effectively infinite) resources of his publicly funded
‘office’ to silence views he thinks are wrong. Presumably CEI must continue to (privately) fund legal council until a court decides that he’s abused his ‘power’.
Seems he can keep them occupied forever, forcing them to dedicate their meager resources to fighting his, in legal terms, ‘no hope case’ while ensuring that the case will never see the inside of a Court.
_____________________________
Must be nice having that kind of ‘power’. The Kings of England once had that power and one of the first results arising out of abuse of it was Magna Carta.
(Despite what many think, it (MC) tended to stop the King using the very same (VI ADA) tactics to take land from his peers – nothing to do with the ‘peasants’ and their supposed ‘rights’. Your right, as a peasant, in 1200, was that you remained alive)
3×2
I think that the peasants’ rights about then were pretty much to die of starvation, overwork and hypothermia, rather than from violence.
A hundred and thirty years later, and the Black Death, and disease was added to the ‘rights’.
But re the VI chappie – I think there must be some personal comeback!
Auto
From the article: “CEI’s motion for sanctions against AG Walker is pending in court and the group continues its pushback against the AG’s wrongdoing.”
Good! Hold his feet to the fire. He did not have enough of a case to file in the first place, and if nothing else, CEI keeping this in front of the public, will make the AG look bad, and the other AG’s will take notice.
We need lots of pushback on this blatant threat to First Amendment Free Speech by these Leftwing AG’s and their fellow perpetrators.
I don’t know a heck of a lot about the law but if a suit succeeds against Walker, couldn’t that lead to a conspiracy case against the20?
More like a privilege!
But don’t knock Magna Carta – it started a centuries-long trickle down process until everyone had rights. It finally reached women in the 1920s, and gays in the 1970s.
What?
Gays were not allowed to vote before 1970?
Worse, they had to use men’s restrooms.
Now, thanks to LBGTXYZ… rights, they can drill a hole in any wall.
The graffiti reads: this dick was “attributed” to me at birth by a politically ignorant chromosome . I’m really a woman. Trans-gender equality sucks.
I use the impersonal pronoun ” it ” to resolve all cases of gender confusion.
And it is very avant garde since it already incorporates animals in the available options; and not restricted to just primates, or even to mammals.
But I don’t really care what any person calls themselves; so long as they don’t expect me to call them that. Well that’s what I use the ” it ” for.
g
Now to go after Mann.
Mark Steyn is on that case, as is Tim Ball, to the tune of $10 million each. I’d be very interested to find out who’s name is on those checks, if they ever get issued.
Bad public policy has become the norm. Obama has institutionalized it and advanced it jack boot style.
How can United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch sit still and watch this loss of integrity, the gross negligence, by State Attorney generals?
Valerie told her too.
She doesn’t understand either of those terms you just used.
g
But how does this address the question of which bathroom I’m supposed to use?
EPA should make use of diapers obligatory for fools like you.
You are now aloud to use ANY one. It is no longer legal to label them, “inboards”, or “outboards”.
g
The blatant corruption of justice in U.S. is more wide spread than previously thought:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-miscarriage-of-justice-department-1463953209
the lawyers of the U.S. government seem to have been economical with the truth even in other areas
Here’s more detail:
“As a result, Judge Hanen ordered that any Washington-based Justice lawyer who “appears or seeks to appear” in any state or federal court in the 26 states must first attend a remedial ethics seminar on “candor to the court.” He also ordered Attorney General Loretta Lynch to prepare a “comprehensive plan” to prevent such falsification. Such extraordinary judicial oversight is usually reserved for companies with a pattern of corruption or racially biased police departments. Justice is sure to appeal, and whether Judge Hanen has the jurisdiction to impose his plan is uncharted legal territory.”
The Judge should have sanctioned the lawyers for deliberately lying to the court by throwing them out of his court, and referring them for ethics prosecution.
Requiring them to take ethics classes is a copout, IMO.