Judge Maryann Sumi temporarily blocked Wisconsin anti-union law today that was signed by Governor Scott Walker. The law curtailed much of the collective bargaining rights public employees had previously been allowed to employ.
According to the LA Times:
Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi granted the temporary order that prevents publication of the measure signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker after weeks of protests and a boycott by Senate Democrats that turned the capital of Madison in a national political battleground on the issue of limiting public employee union power.
The judge was acting on a request by Dist. Atty. Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat, who had filed a lawsuit contending a legislative committee had violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law by pushing the measure onto the floor. That maneuver was key in unblocking the legislative stalemate and allowing the bill to be signed by Walker on March 11.
“I’ll definitely take it,” said Eddie Vale, political communications director for the AFL-CIO, the national labor federation that had fought Walker and the bill. “But the big caveat, of course, is that this is temporary. They can appeal the case. And they can also re-notice the meeting and hold another vote.
The important thing to remember is that this ruling is temporary and will be revisited. It is probably just the beginning of many legal battles over this national obsession on public employees and unions. No one appears to be taking victory laps yet.
