Wisconsin judge halts state from moving forward on law stripping collective bargaining rights: News of the Day
The fight over Wisconsin’s anti-union bargaining law took another shift yesterday, when a Dane County Circuit judge again ordered the state to put the law on hold while she considers a broader challenge to its legality. According to the Associated Press, Judge Maryann Sumi chastised state officials for ignoring her earlier order to halt the law’s publication:"Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of (the law) was enjoined,” Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said during a hearing. “That is what I now want to make crystal clear.”
Sumi is set to hear additional arguments Friday on the larger question of whether GOP legislative leaders violated the state’s open meetings law during debate on the measure. She also is considering Republican claims that the law technically took effect last weekend after a state agency unexpectedly published it online. Ulitmately, the measure's legitimacy will most likely be decided by the State Supreme Court.
Leading Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. George Miller (CA-7), had this to say about the Wisconsin law, which he called "an assault on workers' rights":
“I firmly believe that workers rights built our nation’s middle class in the last century and made the United States the greatest economic power in the history of the world. In these fights over workers’ rights, our economic future is at stake. Indeed, the character of our country is at stake.”