AG Long's Poll: Mob Rule over Rule of Law?

If the questions of fact and law aren't enough to win a case, then there's no case. At least that's the principle one would think would guide a responsible lawyer, especially an attorney general spending taxpayer dollars. But South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long evidently operates by different principles. In its effort to force Brandon state legislator Roger Hunt to name of the anonymous donor who blew $750,000 on Hunt's failed campaign to ban abortions in South Dakota last year, the AG's office is paying USD's Business Research Bureau between $27,800 and $35,300 to survey public opinion on "ballot initiatives and referenda and related financial disclosure laws" [Josh Verges, "State Plans Poll in Hunt Donor Case," that smutty Sioux Falls paper that promotes unhealthy sexual attitudes and doesn't provide a good free archive of articles, 2007.08.12].

The attentive taxpayer might derive annoyance from the fact that, according to Mason-Dixon Polling and Research's Larry Harris, one could get a simple public opinion poll that interviews more people and has a similar margin of error for less than a fifth of that cost.

More puzzling and distressing, though, is the idea that the AG thinks a public opinion survey has any bearing on a legal argument. The question of the $750,000 donor's identity certainly arouses curiosity (heck, if she/he has that kind of money to burn, maybe she/he would like to buy some paintings!). Secretary of State Chris Nelson (a pretty straight-up guy) thinks Hunt broke the law, and if Representative Hunt has violated any laws in concealing the donor's name, the court (and the voters) should hold him accountable. But if he didn't break the law, there's no case. The scientifically recorded opinions of 500 citizens on what the law should be are, in this case, irrelevant. Whether people like campaign-finance reports, initiatives and referenda, or Roger Hunt has no bearing on the legality of what Hunt and his donor did. A whole mob might want to tar and feather Roger Hunt, but that doesn't give the court any authority to order the brush and chickens.

The Madville Times welcomes the opinions of better legal minds who can explain how this public opinion survey can have any bearing on a legal case. Absent such opinions, though, AG Long should save our money for the trial itself, not on frivolous research that stands a good chance of being thrown out as irrelevant and immaterial to the questions before the court. We have courts so disputes can be settled by law, not mob opinion.