Thursday, May 26, 2011
Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin's Anti-Union Law
Update (PS): Here is the actual decision and some local analysis from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the implications for th bill for public sector bargaining in Wisconsin. My take is that this is a partial victory, because the Wisconsin Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on June 6th and there is a 4-3 conservative majority which is likely to uphold the law. This will however only lead to the end of the procedural challenges to the law and substantive challenges will no doubt follow.
Judge Sumi has now issued her final ruling in the open meetings law challenge to Wisconsin's anti-union law. As was suspected, she held that the way in which the law was passed violated the state open meetings law (which, among other things, required at least two hours of notice to the public before a vote) and issued a permanent injunction against the law. According to the New York Times:
The Senate’s 19 Republicans approved the measure, 18 to 1, in less than half an hour, without any debate on the floor or a single Democrat in the room. . . . Republican senators asserted that they had enacted the collective bargaining law under emergency conditions, obviating the need to comply with the open meetings law. But Judge Sumi said she found no official evidence of emergency conditions or notice.
“This case is the example of values protected by the open meetings law: transparency in government, the right of citizens to participate in their government and respect for the rule of law,” Judge Sumi wrote in her conclusion. She said the evidence demonstrated a failure to obey even the two-hour notice allowed for good cause if a 24-hour notice was impossible or impractical. . . .
Judge Sumi rejected the Republicans’ claims that the open meetings law did not allow bills passed by the State Legislature to be struck down, asserting that only laws by lesser bodies can be overturned under that law. She also rejected the idea that the law was so important that it should stand despite the open meetings violation. Quoting a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision from last year, Judge Sumi wrote, “The right of the people to monitor the people’s business is one of the core principles of democracy.”
I still find it interesting that the Republicans don't just pass the bill again. The article states that there is worry that the Democrats will leave again or fear over pending recall elections. None of this seemed to bother them initially, but perhaps the backlash to this law had more of an impact on proponents than it first appeared. The state supreme court will hold oral arguments on the case on June 6, so stay tuned.
-JH
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/2011/05/judge-strikes-down-wisconsins-anti-union-law.html
Yeah. Like this law wasn't subject to public scrutiny.
Posted by: James Young | May 26, 2011 12:23:32 PM