The U.S.
Supreme Court on Monday let stand Wisconsin's top court's decision to halt a
special prosecutor's investigation into possible unlawful coordination between
Republican Governor Scott Walker's campaign and conservative advocacy groups.
The justices
declined a prosecution appeal of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's July 2015
decision to end the probe into whether conservative groups and Walker's
campaign to survive a recall vote in 2012 had violated campaign finance laws.
Walker, who
last year mounted an unsuccessful bid for his party's 2016 presidential
nomination, won re-election in November 2014 for a second four-year term as
Wisconsin's governor.
The
investigation led by special prosecutor Francis Schmitz focused on possible
coordination between Walker's campaign and conservative groups including the
Wisconsin Club for Growth in 2011 and 2012.
A federal
judge in May 2014 initially stopped the probe after the Wisconsin Club for
Growth filed a lawsuit accusing investigators of sidelining the group from
political activities and violating its rights to under the U.S. Constitution to
free speech, association and equal protection under the law.
A federal
appeals court later said the investigation could continue. But in a parallel
case in state court, Wisconsin's high court ultimately stopped it.
In October
2015, Walker signed a new state law that prohibits prosecutors from using the
Wisconsin's secret investigation statute, a measure that had been used to
convict four of his aides and investigate his campaign, to probe political
crimes.
Walker was
first elected governor in 2010.
In June 2012,
he became the first state governor in U.S. history to survive a recall
election. The investigation was launched two months later and also looked at
recall elections in 2011 involving other candidates.
Walker's steps
to curb the power of labor unions, which generally align themselves with
Democrats, helped trigger the recall election. In 2011, Walker signed a law
that limited collective bargaining rights for state workers. Walker then
prevailed in the union-backed 2012 recall election.
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