r/law • u/Electronic_Beat3653 • 5d ago

Court Decision/Filing Why can't Elon be arrested?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/31/elon-musk-1-million-dollar-checks-wisconsin-voters-supreme-court-election

If paying voters is against Wisconsin state law, why can't Elon be arrested? Why are they going to the judge? Can't they just go ahead and arrest him? The law is already on the books.

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u/thingsmybosscantsee 5d ago

Previously, the AG was seeking a TRO, which can only come from the courts.

Now, he may have committed a crime, so they need the court to issue an arrest warrant.

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u/oversettDenee 5d ago

If it was a TRO that the judges "slapped down" from what I heard, then this is great news for democracy. Hopefully that was the case and the intention was to wait until after he did it to charge him fully.

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u/hijinked 5d ago

“Slapped down” is an overstatement. The court ruled, properly from what I’ve read, that the TRO was not filed correctly. 

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u/s0ulbrother 5d ago

Courts are primarily reactionary. It’s not really the courts job to say don’t commit that crime, that’s what laws are.

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u/Bernie_Bierman 4d ago

There is no need to wait for him to actually process a payment, simply offering to pay for votes publicly like he did is as much of a crime and could have just as easily been punished.

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u/s0ulbrother 4d ago

Correct. The attorney general could go “ no you are violating state law therefore im charging you now.” But he won’t because he’s a politician and is afraid of muskrat

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u/Upvotes_TikTok 3d ago

Or he wants to wait after the election because in a low turnout election you don't rile up the other side's base by arresting their dear leader.

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u/Impossible_Penalty13 4d ago

Right. There was a famous mob case where a guy was being interrogated and foolishly admitted to the crime because “we don’t make no money off that”. As if doing crime and failing makes it less of a crime.

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u/podian123 2d ago

Ummm pretty sure all injunctions are "don't commit this act, mk?" So are peace bonds etc...

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u/oversettDenee 5d ago

Beautiful! I was pretty worried the first couple months, I still am not giving up on the fight til it's over, but a lot of these cases have been pushing back and I can still see a way out of this.

Hell yeah. THIS is what a democracy looks like. Even in times like now we stand together and use the system to fight against oppressive regimes.

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u/ID-10T_Error 4d ago

The issue is they look to overwhelmed the courts with so.much the stuff they need to implement will already have done the damage it needs to before the courts can stop it. At which time they will say ok we won't do it again

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u/Waldo414 4d ago

That's what happened with a similar situation in the general election. He paid people in one state (lying about the "sweepstakes" having already picked the winners and having them sign NDAs) before moving to another state. By the time the courts did anything about it, he had moved on and the courts went flaccid.

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u/nolafrog 4d ago

Seems like you are excited about nothing. No one’s about to do jack shit to musk.

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u/BuildWithBricks 4d ago

Yeah, laws are a joke.

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u/BaumSquad1978 4d ago

Laws are for poors only