Wisconsin collective bargaining law

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi yesterday struck down Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's controversial collective bargaining law, ruling that a legislative committee violated the state's open meetings law when it hastily convened to amend the measure, which Gov. Walker then signed March 11.

The ruling, though, won't end the legal battles over the law which sharply curtails the collective bargaining rights of most public employees in Wisconsin., and an appeal is all but certain, the Wisconsin State Journal said this morning. In another article, The Wall Street Journal points out the decision was based on how the law was passed, not its substance, and may be being re-examined by the state Supreme Court.

Judge Sumi concluded her ruling, yesterday, by saying that "It was not the court's business to determine whether 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 was good public policy or bad public policy; that's the business of the Legislature." What is this court's responsibility, however, is to apply the rule of law to the facts before it."

The state's Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on June 6 over whether to take the case immediately in response to an earlier request by the state Department of Justice and state Department of Administration challenging Judge Sumi's authority to act in the case. The high court also has yet to rule on an appeal by DOJ lawyers that was filed after Sumi issued a restraining order in March barring implementation of the law, the State Journal said. The Wall Street Journal added that "Republican lawmakers could wait for the Supreme Court to rule, or they could attempt to pass the bill again, either on its own or as part of the state budget."

A third article, this one in The L.A. Times, also noted that "As the Wisconsin fight intensifies — with six Republican and three Democratic senators facing recall elections, most likely July 12 — union workers and their allies in Ohio are halfway toward their goal of collecting more than 450,000 signatures to put a measure on the fall ballot that would repeal that state's anti-union law, which sharply curtails the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Recall proponents need to gather 231,149 valid signatures by the end of June; they say they had collected 214,399 signatures as of last week."


Ohio's Senate Bill 5, which has been much compared to Wisconsin's, was signed on March 31st., but does not become effective until July 1, 2011.


Judge Sumi's Decision
Findings of Fact Conclusions of Law and Judgment