Foxconn can’t skip legal appeals process

Apparently, our democracy is for sale in Wisconsin. Our elected officials are so eager to get Foxconn to the state, and its promise of 10,000 jobs, they are willing to not just bend the rules, but to shatter them. The incentive package being offered to the Taiwan company includes not just billions of our tax dollars, and not just the offer to waive environmental regulations, but also a plan to desecrate our democracy. The package approved by the Joint finance Committee would carve out a huge exception for Foxconn, allowing the company to completely ignore the rules that govern our judicial system. If this deal passes, any lawsuits filed against Foxconn, and there are certain to be some, Foxconn could bypass the appellate courts and appeal the lawsuit directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Further, any lower court order against Foxconn would be suspended until a ruling from the state’s highest court is issued. This is unprecedented, outrageous, a violation of our system of checks and balances, and most likely unconstitutional. No person, or organization, or business in Wisconsin, even the biggest ones, are allowed to have their own rules in the event of a lawsuit. Why should other businesses have to be bothered by the rules if Foxconn does not? Do we craft the rules of our democracy based on how many people a company employs? That is not a democracy. It is corporate rule. And that is not how we do things in Wisconsin.