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Court allows Wisconsin's union law to take effect

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 10:48 PM EDT

In a fiery dissent, Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson wrote that justices hastily reached the decision and the majority "set forth their own version of facts without evidence. They should not engage in this disinformation."

Abrahamson also said a concurring opinion written by Justice David Prosser, a former Republican speaker of the Assembly, was "long on rhetoric and long on story-telling that appears to have a partisan slant."

Tuesday's ruling means the law is in effect but it wasn't immediately clear when public employees would be affected. There are no plans to apply paycheck deductions retroactively, said Rep. Robin Vos, co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee. Walker's top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, said the ruling was being reviewed.

Many school districts and other public entities reached new union contracts before the ruling, and collective bargaining rights were curtailed. Had the court decision not come down Tuesday, Republicans planned to put the collective bargaining provisions into a budget bill slated for debate that night so the changes could take effect during the court fight.

The fight stemmed from a lawsuit that claimed Republicans violated state law by not providing the proper public notice of a meeting in March.

All 14 of the state's Democratic senators had fled to Illinois in February to try to prevent a vote, but Republicans got around the maneuver by convening a special committee to remove fiscal elements from the bill and allow a vote with fewer members present. Walker signed the plan into law two days later, on March 11.

Democratic Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed the lawsuit the next week. Sumi, who initially heard Ozanne's lawsuit, issued a temporary order blocking publication of the law while she weighed the arguments and declared the law void last month.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, both Republicans, said Tuesday that they always believed the bill was legally approved.

"We followed the law when the bill was passed, simple as that," the brothers said in a joint statement. "We're finally headed in the right direction by balancing the budget and focusing on jobs, just like Republicans promised we would do."

Ozanne was disappointed, saying "we've done the best we can ... It looks like we've lost."

Attorneys for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, representing the Republicans who control the Legislature, had asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly, in part to speed the process.

Walker counted on the law being in effect in the budget he put forward for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Walker has said the public worker concessions would generate about $300 million in savings to the state over the next two years.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said Walker and Republicans' push to enact the law "resulted in months of legal wrangling, unprecedented political divisiveness and millions of dollars of lost budget savings."