Published 26 May, 2011
A judge has blocked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to strip public workers of their basic collective bargaining rights because politicians used illegal, anti-democratic tactics to get it passed.
The decision by Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court found that Republican politicians violated open meetings laws in their attempt to ram the bill through the legislature. Sumi said that Republican backers of the bill failed to give the public adequate notice and failed to demonstrate that the legislation was of high enough priority to avoid rules of openness and transparency.
The ruling is a big boost to the effort to block the bill and recall the politicians who supported the attack on workers’ rights.
“The people have been clear from day one, they have stood together in the streets of Madison and in the streets around the state to express that this law is too extreme for Wisconsin,” said Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Today democracy was upheld. We hope that the Supreme Court will consider the careful review conducted by Judge Sumi and support her conclusion.”
The case will now go to the Wisconsin Sate Supreme Court on June 6. If the ruling is upheld, Walker and his allies would have to pass the bill again, but many politicians are getting anxious about repeating the massively unpopular vote in the face of recalls and upcoming elections.