December 15, 2009 08:52 PM UTC

Privacy Violation Good for Buck in Primary?

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• by: Colorado Pols

As The Denver Post reports:

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that a 2008 raid of a local tax preparer’s office aimed at building identity-theft cases against hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants violated their Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

The 4-3 ruling was the latest and most devastating legal blow against Operation Numbers Game, an investigation launched by Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and District Attorney Ken Buck that aimed to use tax returns to identify and prosecute illegal immigrants.

The raid on Amalia’s Tax and Translation, a business that caters to Spanish-speaking clients, led to the seizure and review of some 4,900 tax returns. Deputies said they found about 1,300 suspects in identity-theft and criminal-impersonation cases.

More than 100 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested because of the raid, and charges were formally filed against 70 of them. About 60 cases were then dismissed after Weld District Judge James Hartmann, ruling in one of the criminal cases, tossed evidence investigators had seized during their search of Amalia’s…

…On Monday, Buck conceded Operation Numbers Game “is over,” adding he will not appeal the decision. A Colorado prosecutor can appeal a case only as far as the state high court, according to Colorado law, but a defendant can appeal to a higher court.

But Buck felt the raid was justified.

“I feel the court made its decision and then later developed rationale for this decision,” Buck said.

Prosecutors around the country have been watching the case closely, reportedly the first in the United States in which law enforcement sought to use tax returns – generally considered confidential under federal law – to take suspected illegal immigrants to criminal court.

Obviously this isn’t altogether positive news for GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck, and it would certainly hinder his chances of winning a statewide general election. But you could make the case that this decision and subsequent media coverage actually helps Buck in a primary. If Buck can raise enough money to stay in a three-way race with Tom Wiens and Jane Norton, this is the kind of “us against the federal government” battle that Tea Party types like to identify with. And it certainly doesn’t hurt his chances to raise money nationally from the same type of anti-immigrant enthusiasts that funded Tom Tancredo for so many years.