A Judge gets in Scott Walker’s Way… Collective Bargaining Not Dead yet

John Case in his morning mailing passed on this information from John Wojcik in Peoplesword:

Judge Maryann Sumi

A Dane County judge, at 10:30 AM on the 18th, issued a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s bill that would destroy collective bargaining rights for public workers.

In her ruling, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi wrote she was issuing her order because a legislative committee likely violated the state’s open meetings law when it rammed through the bill suddenly on March 9.

The restraining order was in response to a lawsuit brought by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne.

In order that any bill become law in Wisconsin, it has to be published by the Secretary of State.  The restraining order from Judge Sumi prevents Secretary of State Doug LaFollette from publishing the law, as he had planned, on March 25 which would make it take effect on  March 26.  LaFollette, a Democrat, was in no hurray to publish the law anyway.

The judge noted that Conference Committee meetings to move forward legislation can be called only after 24 hours of notice unless there is an emergency. Wisconsin Republicans gave only two hours notice and no emergency could be proven, the judge said.

The court victory is seen as a maj0r loss for Walker and puts the future of the law into question. The labor movement and its allies drew hundreds of thousands to the state Capitol
protesting the legislation and, as you recall, 14 Democratic state senators flee to Illinois to block the vote on the measure.

Stephanie Bloomingfale, the state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer stated:

“Today justice prevailed. In Wisconsin and America we have a democratic process for passing legislation.”

Wisconsin state senators and state representatives are not scheduled to
meet again until April 5.

Related Articles

• Breaking: Judge issues restraining order blocking WI budget-repair bill (hotair.com)
• Federal Judge Blocks Publication of Wisconsin’s Anti-Union Law (crooksandliars.com)
• Just In: Judge in Wisconsin blocks Walker’s Union Busting Bill (skydancingblog.com)
• Wis. law to limit collective bargaining is on hold – Arizona Daily Star (news.google.com)
• Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Halting Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Judge Temporarily Blocks Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law (mediaite.com)
• Judge Halts Implementation of Anti-Union Law in Wisconsin (news.firedoglake.com)