Wisconsin: Police State, literally

Milwaukee Biz Times is reporting:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker issued an order this morning for the State Patrol to round up any Democratic State Senators they can find and bring them back to the Capitol in Madison.

If State Patrol officers find Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona), he will be arrested and brought back to the Capitol, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) said.

"Bringing them back" is one thing, if it involves convincing the legislators to return to the Capitol: offering them a ride, in effect. But arresting them and taking them into custody? I don't think so.

Meanwhile the Capital Times says:

Fitzgerald added Miller would not be arrested, though.

If the Biz Times is accurate, he must have reconsidered. Wisely.

You think it's "absurd" to avoid a vote by "fleeing," wait until the governor starts arresting — literally — his political opponents.

Then Walker's fans will have less to complain about the Hitler sign.

eta: Equivocates Rick Esenberg, who is a professor of the law at Marquette University: "[I]t's not clear to me that they can't be arrested, although that would be an extraordinary thing to do."

Good heavens. Well of course the legislators could be arrested — in the same sense that they could be assaulted, for example — but it would quite clearly be an unlawful arrest, the custody even more so.

I hope the Sergeant at Arms is not asking Prof. Esenberg for advice.