Capital Times editorial: WI Attorney General has no respect for the Constitution or rule of law

J.B. Van Hollen chooses party over principle, the constitution and the rule of law
Cap Times editorial
Posted: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 7:10 am


Never let it be said that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, the most rigid partisan ever to hold the state's top law-enforcement position, does not take care of his own.

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1. Decided not to prosecute former Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz on criminal charges of sexual assault, personal misconduct and abuse of the public trust when he reportedly sent 30 text messages trying to strike up an affair with a domestic abuse victim while he prosecuted her ex-boyfriend on a strangulation charge. The 50-year-old district attorney sent 26-year-old Stephanie Van Groll messages referring to her as "a hot nymph" and asking if she was "the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married DA." Kratz was forced to resign, but he will not be held to account.

2. Decided — despite the opinions of the legal counsel for the Legislative Reference Bureau, the advice of county and city prosecutors from around the state, and the assessments of leading law professors — that the state constitution and statutes did not need to be respected in the debate over whether Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union power grab (Act 10) can be unilaterally declared to be in force. The Legislative Reference Bureau made moves to prepare for publication of the legislation last week, but Secretary of State Doug La Follette used his authority to put the law's publication on hold when a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring publication until questions could be reviewed about whether the legislation had been legally enacted. Van Hollen ignored the constitution, the statues and the judge's order and simply issued a press release declaring: "Act 10 is now law."

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J.B. Van Hollen is a Republican who takes care of his political pals, putting party above principle, above the constitution he has sworn an oath to uphold, and above the rule of law that is the essential underpinning of civil society.