Wisc. Judge Blocks Controversial Union Law

Uploaded by AssociatedPress on Mar 18, 2011

A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the state's new and contentious collective bargaining law from taking effect and creating a huge setback for Republican Gov. Scott Walker's plan to balance the budget. (March 18)

Wisconsin judge blocks bill stripping collective bargaining rights

by Chris Bowers for Daily Kos

A county judge in Wisconsin has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the so-called "budget repair bill" that strips collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees. Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.
Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.

The law was challenged by Ismael Ozanne, the Dane County Disrict Attorney, on the grounds that the way the bill was passed violated the state's open meetings law. Specifically, Wisconsin Republicans passed a heavily altered version of the budget repair bill through committee less than two hours after they announced they were going to do so. However, the state's open meeting law requires 24 hours notice. This is the crux of the two Dane country lawsuits filled against the bill:

[Dane County Executive Kathleen] Falk’s suit argues the bill still contained spending provisions after the committee was done revising it. That means a full quorum was necessary to vote in the Senate. She also argues that the Republicans convened the committee hearing on less than two hours’ notice, even though the state’s open meeting law demands at least 24 hours. Ozanne’s lawsuit alleges the same open meeting violation. He also claims that the Senate parlor was too small to be considered reasonably accessible and police had restricted public access to the state Capitol building to limit protesters.

The simple fact is that they passed the bill with far less than 24 hours notice. Republicans are in some serious legal trouble on this one.