Judge’s Order
Blocks Law on Unions in Wisconsin
Published: March 18, 2011 - New York Times
CHICAGO — Efforts to shrink collective bargaining rights for public workers
in Wisconsin were slowed on Friday when a judge issued a temporary restraining
order blocking a much-debated law from taking effect.
The decision, issued by Judge Maryann Sumi of the Dane County Circuit Court
in Madison, temporarily bars the Wisconsin secretary of state from publishing
the law, which limits bargaining to matters of wages. The fight over the law has
drawn tens of thousands of demonstrators to the State Capitol, and the issue has
become a focus of debate in numerous statehouses.
Publication of the law — a procedural requirement needed before it can take
effect — had been expected next week. But Judge Sumi’s ruling could delay that
until at least later in the month, when she plans to hold a full hearing on a
lawsuit that accuses Republican lawmakers of violating the Wisconsin open
meeting requirements to push through the bill. State officials said they were
pursuing an appeal of the restraining order.
Reaction to the ruling offered more evidence that the rift over collective
bargaining has not faded since Gov. Scott
Walker, a Republican, signed the law a week ago. Democrats and union leaders
said the decision would be the first of many that would ultimately be the
policy’s undoing.
“Republicans have engaged in extraordinary procedural shenanigans to try to
advance their assault on the rights of Wisconsin’s middle class and working
families,” said Mark Miller, a Democratic leader in the State Senate.
The decision raised the prospect that Wisconsin’s legislators might be forced
to take up the bill once again, but Republicans suggested that it was merely a
blip that was likely to be overturned.
“We highly doubt a Dane County judge has the authority to tell the
Legislature how to carry out its constitutional duty,” Senator Scott Fitzgerald
and Representative Jeff Fitzgerald, who are brothers as well as Republican
leaders, said in a statement.
In addition to limiting bargaining to wages, the Wisconsin law limits raises
to changes in the Consumer
Price Index, ends the state’s collection of union dues from paychecks and
requires most unions to hold annual votes to determine whether workers still
wish to be members.
The case
before Judge
Sumi was filed by Ismael R. Ozanne, the Democratic district attorney of Dane
County. The lawsuit says that Republican lawmakers violated the state’s open
meeting requirements when they pushed the bill through the Legislature.
Republicans dominate both chambers, but had been blocked from passing the
measure when Senate Democrats fled the state to prevent a quorum.
On March 9, the Republicans unexpectedly held a meeting of a legislative
conference committee, revised the law so that it no longer required a quorum and
hurried it through the Senate — all in less than half an hour. It passed in the
Assembly the next day.
The lawsuit says that Republican legislative leaders not only failed to
provide 24 hours’ notice for the conference committee meeting, they even failed
to give two hours’ notice — which is permissible under state law if more notice
is “impossible or impractical.”
Republican leaders contended that because they were dealing with a bill tied
to a special session, they were required only to post a notice of the meeting on
a legislative bulletin board. The posts, they said, appeared on boards near the
Senate and Assembly chambers two hours before the meeting began.
From the bench, Judge Sumi emphasized the importance of openness and access
in government doings. “It’s not a minor detail,” she said. “We here in Wisconsin
own our government.”
Judge Sumi was appointed in 1998 by Gov. Tommy
Thompson, a Republican.