Pennsylvania Judge Allows Elon Musk Giveaway to Continue
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta did not give a reason.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta ruled that Elon Musk’s America PAC $1 million giveaway can continue.
Foglietta did not give a reason.
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner claimed the PAC’s giveaway violates state election laws. From ABC News:
Andy Taylor, a lawyer for Musk’s America PAC, argued that the DA’s case falls apart after today’s revelation that the alleged lottery awarded preselected winners.
“It’s an opportunity to earn. It’s not a chance to win,” Taylor said, emphasizing the winners’ roles as spokespeople for the PAC.
Taylor emphasized that the case centers on a petition in support of the First and Second amendments, arguing that shutting down the giveaway would infringe on free speech.
“You are going to smother in the crib the rights of millions of Pennsylvanians from exercising constitutional magnitude free speech,” Taylor said.
Musk’s lawyer Chris Gober said the PAC already selected the winners before Election Day.
They reside in Arizona and Michigan:
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.
Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.
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Comments
Nobody is telling anyone how to vote. Now of course one could assume that candidates that support the Constitution and its primary amendments are Republican….
If Musk wants to give out money in return for signing a petition, then that is his right. He could give it out for people wearing sandals.
Or for being born with red hair.
It’s not like he could be charged for a serious crime, like bank robbery.
I wonder what the reaction would be from Trump supporters ff George Soros was doing the same thing.
It would never see the inside of a courthouse, so who cares? Soros gives to politics more than all of Conservative Inc. combined.
What would the world do without your whataboutisms. Funny how they always go one way.
Soros did.
Soros put nearly $1.7 million in Philly DA’s race
https://whyy.org/articles/soros-weighed-in-with-even-more-money-in-das-race/
That’s not the same thing at all. Put money into an election, and you have to take care to comply with various laws that the courts have upheld as not violating the first amendment. Soros presumably took such care, and complied with all those laws.
But what Musk is doing here has nothing to do with elections, so election law doesn’t even arise in the first place. And Soros is free to do the same.
The reaction would be, it’s his money and he’s entitled to do with it whatever he wants. That’s what the first and fifth amendments say.
Ridiculous comparison. If soros or a minion was paying millions to collect a list of citizens who support the 1st and 2nd amendments, it’d be to make a list of folks to send to the gulag. Musk is obviously doing this for less ominous reasons, to publicize/generate support for the two…..
And collect a mailing list for fundraising for the next election.
Actually, this may be a bit of genius.
Not only good PR, but may be the cheapest way ever to generate a valuable mailing list.
The whole lawsuit was a joke, no one was being paid or even required to vote, let alone vote for a particular candidate. It was as legal as any self-selected poll, and he only promised to pay out to participants, he never promised it would be totally random or what selection criteria would apply.
Soros might want to create a list of people who are against the first and second amendments, or who want them amended in significant ways. Or he might want a list of people who want an amendment protecting abortion, or entrenching the “environment” as a required factor in all legislation, or whatever. And it would be his right to do so.
As you say, it’s got nothing to do with the election, so it can’t possibly involve election laws.
I wonder what the reaction would be from LI commenters if you just quietly returned to your basement and your kiddie porn.
Now, now, don’t attack JR for personality defects we have no way of knowing if they are true or not. We don’t need to make stuff up.
Attack him for being an NPC.
And for having no reasoned arguments, only rote knee-jerk ones.
JR does occasionally have reasoned arguments. This isn’t one of those times.
I attack him all the time for being an NPC and for invariably posting something that’s breathtakingly stupid.
But, are you sure I’m making stuff up? Who’s to say that a clodhopper like JR DOESN’T have kiddie porn on his computer?
I freely admit I don’t know if he has a basement or not.
Soros is aleady doing that sort of thing. Look at all the funds he has spent in sponsoring various leftists for offices across the nation. The difference is that the Musk winners are not leftists. And the process is open and celebrated, not hidden behind a bunch of phony supporters.
I was puzzled by the lawsuit in the first place. It was money given out for a petition that did not involve a candidate or ballot measure. Paying someone to sign a petition saying they support The Constitution isn’t illegal. Yet.
The lawsuit wasn’t about elections at all. I don’t know where that idea comes from. The allegation was that he was running an illegal lottery.
And the answer is that one of two things must be true: Either this is not a lottery within the meaning of the law, because it’s not taking any money from anyone, which is the only nexus that makes lotteries any of the state’s business. Or the law extends as far as this sort of thing, in which case it’s unconstitutional.
The ‘news’ stories from the left are practically giddy with anticipation, declaring Musk has violated the law and will be jailed before election day and fined every penny he has etc… It’s like they don’t realize anybody with a certain net worth has a legal department that has to approve each action taken.
So… they threw down in court because it was a lottery, with the urgency it would impact the election. So Musk had it removed to fed court because it was election related. Then a state judge stops everything because it isn’t a lottery at all.
Is there any chagrin expressed from Musk’s team that people thought it was a chance to win, not a chance “to earn”? It seems, at first glance, to be kind of rotten, if people thought it was a prize drawing.
As I understand it, the winners were initially chosen at random, and then vetted to make sure they’re suitable to the organization’s goals. If they were not, another person was randomly chosen and vetted, until they found someone suitable.
And that process took at least several days, so the winner for each day was chosen, not from that day’s signatories but from those several days earlier. So that by the time this came to court no further signatories had any chance of winning, because the last two winners had already been chosen.
In any case, since you’re not paying anything, how are you harmed?