Wisconsin Unions Lose First Round, Win Luck of the Draw in the Second

Hans von Spakovsky / June 17, 2011

Wisconsin unions seem to have lucked out with the federal judge assigned to their latest lawsuit trying to stop the state’s new collective bargaining law for state employees.  The Wisconsin Education Association, the AFL-CIO, the Wisconsin State Employees Union, and other unions that have been violently and belligerently protesting the law lost big on June 14 when the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out the state court lawsuit that had been filed against the collective bargaining law.

The state Supreme Court declared all of biased county Judge MaryAnn Sumi’s erroneous injunctions and other orders preventing the law from going into effect void ab initio – invalid from the second they were issued – because she had “usurped the legislative power” of the state legislature.  The court dismissed claims that the passage of the law violated Wisconsin’s open meeting law.  Not only did the facts not support those claims, but Sumi had ignored prior precedent on these issues and violated basic separation of powers principles by intermeddling in the internal rules of the legislature for enactment of a law.

However, almost without missing a beat, these same unions filed a federal lawsuit the very next day (June 15) in the Western District of Wisconsin.  This new lawsuit, which had obviously been prepared prior to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision, reads more like a press release or political manifesto than a serious legal document.   (more…)