Judge voids controversial Wisconsin union law

The Prof said:

today:

Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers. The court found a committee of lawmakers was not subject to the state's open meetings law, and so did not violate that law when they hastily approved the measure and made it possible for the Senate to take it up.

The majority opinion was by Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler. The other three justices - Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and N. Patrick Crooks - concurred in part and dissented in part.

The opinion voided all orders in the case from the lower court. It came just before 5 p.m., sparing Republicans who control the Legislature from taking up the contentious issue of collective bargaining again.

Legislative leaders had said they would have inserted the limits on collective bargaining into the state budget late Tuesday if the court hadn't acted by then. But the high court ruled just before that budget debate was to begin.

The court ruled that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi's ruling, which had held up implementation of the collective bargaining law, was void ab initio, or invalid from the outset.

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Supreme Court reinstates collective bargaining law - JSOnline

from athens to sacto, there's no stopping it, as inexorable as math

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tessaesque said:

So it was only rejected on the basis of how the voting was done? Interesting....

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pbrauer said:

The Wisconsin legislature could have scheduled a revote taking into account the Open Meetings Law, but they didn't for some reason... :doh

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haymarket said:

Repealing the 20th century is not as easy as some thought it would be.

Thanks BD for that bit of breaking news. It brightened my day.

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The_Patriot said:

It is so nice for the judge ignore the law stating that government bodies are exempt from the open meetings law.

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