A circuit judge in Wisconsin has issued a temporary injunction against Governor Walker's law stripping public employees of their rights. At issue in the case is not the contents of the law itself, but whether Republicans violated the state's open meetings law when they created a conference committee on the fly and jammed the bill through.
"It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law)," Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi wrote. Ms. Sumi says that Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who brought the suit, has a good enough chance of winning to merit stopping the law for now.
The Walker administration plans to appeal, and in any case the victory is likely more of a moral boost for Democrats than anything they count on. Republicans control both chambers of the legislature. Now that they've decided the budget-repair bill contains no fiscal matters, they're free to pass it all over again without a three-fifths quorum.
Where Democrats do seem to be gaining ground is with their drive to recall eight eligible Republican senators. State Senator Jon Erpenbach tells WisPolitics that the recalls might make Republicans less eager to sign up for that particular spotlight again. "I don’t know how many times you can tell public employees and others around the state of Wisconsin that we don’t respect you and we’re not going to pay you and we’re going to break up your union and we’re going to take your collective bargaining rights away twice," Senator Erpenbach says.
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