Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Stop Musk’s Million-Dollar Check Giveaway
The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously declined to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s attorney general to prevent Elon Musk from giving away million-dollar checks on Sunday, as per Fox News.
The decision came just hours before the Tesla CEO hosted an America PAC town hall in Green Bay.
Musk handed over $1 million checks to two voters who signed a petition against “activist judges” in the state. The move was intended to generate attention, according to Musk.
“The reason for the checks is that, it’s really just to get attention,” Musk said, holding an oversized check. “It’s like, we need to get attention….somewhat inevitably, when I do this….it causes the legacy media to, like, kind of lose their minds.”
Wisconsin voters elect Supreme Court justices to 10-year terms, and Musk was in Green Bay to support candidate Brad Schimel, a Republican former state attorney general.
In a last-ditch effort to block the giveaway, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed for an emergency injunction on Sunday, urging the 4-3 liberal-majority court to rule “as soon as possible but no later than the planned event on Sunday evening.”
Kaul argued that Musk’s giveaway violates state election laws, despite the fact that the two recipients of the checks had already voted.
“The offer to pay $1 million to two Wisconsin electors, conditioned on their having voted in the upcoming election, is a violation of Wisconsin Statute § 12.11, which prohibits offering ‘anything of value’ in exchange for “vot[ing] or refrain[ing] from voting,” the attorney general’s filing stated. “Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote,” Kaul continued. “Yet, Elon Musk did just that.”
Musk’s attorneys argued in court filings that the payments are “intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate.”
It remains unclear if Schimel attended the rally. Musk stated on X that “entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges.”
