Wisconsin Judge Halts Collective Bargaining Reform
by PubliusFrom the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.
Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.
Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.
“It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law),” she said.
The judge’s finding – at least for now – is a setback to Republican Gov. Scott Walker and a victory for opponents, who have spent weeks in the Capitol to protest the bill.
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141 Comments
Judicial activism, there are great forces fighting against the individual and against our Constitutionally protected rights and liberties.
This is what a soft tyranny is.
Appeal the ruling. – - – - So the Dem socialist Union connections found a judge to put a temporary stay on Gov Walker's Law. Typical dirty-politics of the left. That will not deter US from dismantling the Unions. Their time is over.
Have the legislature vote again.
Take note what is happening here. The Dane County DA filed the suit. It was NOT filed by the ACLU or the SEIU or the Teachers Union.
He is filing on behalf of the general public of Dane County.
Not only is there an activist judge here, but a county DA is going out on a limb as well.
Time to re-issue the 1,500 layoff notices. At the same time, introduce the bill again (today) and vote on it Monday. This time, do not recind the layoff notices until all is settled . . . and maybe still follow through with the layoffs.
One of the writers here already posted analysis of how the meeting did not violate the open meetings law. This is grasping at straws that will cost the taxpayers of Dane County …
Progressive judges that make up the law are everywhere,
we must get them out or nothing will ever be right in the US
No problemo …IF this Wacko Liberal Femi-Nazi Judge rules in favor of the Unions – is nothing more than a "technicality" under which this suit was filed. All the Legislature has to do is reconvene, have what they call an "open meeting", vote and it is DONE.
When do we stop calling it "soft" tyranny and call it what it is – a judicial coup d'état.
Never give up,….Never give in! We will bust the Socialist Democrat Unions and their "robbery without a gun,"
of their dues paying members, and of the tax payers. And it will be all across America. They cannot stop this
movement in all 50 States! even tho they will try. This "inside baseball" will not deter US. We will win!
another stall tactic…buying more time for the unions to make their deals before the law in published. This Judge needs to be impeached.
Impeach the corrupt bastard!
Remove this corrupt frakking POS and anyone that agrees with it. THIS IS BS and should be considered TREASON.
Great strategy! Email it to the Governor's office.
Agreed, send out pink slips NOW!!
Walker is a smart man – he will figure a way around this road bump.
Exactly! Git'r DONE!
This isn't the first bit of interference by this judge in this union fight. Sumi earlier blocked an order to force teachers back to work, claiming that their absence couldn't be proved to be a strike under state law.
*addition* http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Maryann_Sumi
It looks like Sumi also blocked an attempt to force the state into compliance with federal law that would clean up the voter rolls prior to the 2008 election: http://legalnewsline.com/news/216788-wisconsin-ag...
The Anti American Democrats have to fight this law to the very last Attorney (or Judge). With out the News Media acting as a Mouth Piece for the DNC and the Union laundering cash the Democrat Party is Toast.
In the mean time the Republicans are missing many opportunities to argue their case to the Tax Payers and Unemployed as the Tea Party is missing an opportunity to install a plan B or C making them a one trick pony.
Republicans, look at the numbers of Unemployed out there. Many of these people ARE Pissed Off Democrats on the fence. Low Hanging Fruit so to speak. Go get em!
Tea Party, How many people do you have on you mailing list? Send out Talking Points in regards to the Media hypocrisy on various issues and flood the Main Stream Media with e-mail every day. If gas were $4.00 a gallon, Unemployment was 10% with under employment at 18% and a Republican were President? Does the News Media even know any of this is going on? Maybe if the Tea Party reminded them 10,000 time each day they would notice it?
You are welcome and I will be here all week.
Alas….common sense is not that common…..and non-extistent on the left.
Where is the taxpayers union I ask? Who represents the people of this republic?
Mark Levin had a great point in a discussion yesterday regardng the Obamacare waivers and the equal protection clause. Aside from the equal protection issue, the real question is where does the executive branch get the authority to grant any damn waivers in the first place? This is not in the Constitution, the executive does not get to make these decisions by any stretch of the imagination. Yet he does.
This is the power of a king, a tyrant.
Now that the Dems are back, make a motion to pass the Original Law which also de-funds the Unions. It will pass because the GOP has the majority. Then the Unions are worse off than before this slick Dem trick. Voila!
Agreed! Their day is done. Republican governors and state legislatures have done yeoman work in correcting union abuses, as well as inequities between union and non-union workers (not to mention the inequities between public sector workers and private sector workers).
We could use some of this same intestinal fortitude and resolve amongst the Republicans in the US House and Senate.
Rush just said Gov. Walker should pull an O'bama and just ignore the courts….
Proggyism is a plague that is always 100% fatal to the RULE OF LAW, individual liberties and free societies!
LOOK FOR THE INDEPENDENT LABEL AND STARVE THE BEAST!!!
Start the state layoffs now–better yet– mak'em retro-active.
Gosh, I thought the persons on this site were all in favor of activist judges like the ones who have ruled the Affordable Health Care act unconstitutional.
Judge Maryann Sumi just high profiled herself, and not in a good way. Investigate! and the same for all of the
other Democrat activist Judges across the land. They will be removed one by one. Do not underestimate an
angry electorate demanding justice in America. We will bust these corrupt Unions who have Priority Status
and collude with obama and/or his staff every single day! .What's wrong with that picture! Union bosses have
assured their own extinction!
Call an "emergency" open session today. Get all the legislators in chamber and lock the doors from the outside. Do not let them back out until the vote is done, with the Dems in attendance. They will still lose and it will save time and a bunch of expense fighting this in a rigged court. And as someone else said, Obama ignores court orders all the time, perhaps Walker should as well.
If "Dad" says no to a bad idea, then just go ask "Mom" – progressives have never left the "Basement."
Just think of this as a delay to allow all the districts to pad the books and give out raises to the teachers before the law would take effect.
Did a google. From what I discovered is that Maryann Sumi is a liberal, activist type judge. Now it will more than likely have to go all the way to the state supreme court. Wonder how much was promised for her campaign chest for reelection?
It wil NOT stop the inevitable passing of the bill. In fact I hope the Senate will vote on the bill the Assembly already passed.
What?
Maybe Gov Walker should just ignore the law the way Obama does.
All judges are activists by the very nature of the job.
However to be partisan in judicial matters is corruption.
Expressing what I've been saying several times here. The GOP is a worthless pile of spineless, clueless, no idea , no brainers. The Tea Party is about 1/2 to being sidelined as they have neither presented us with any LEADERSHIP.
Golden opportunities to take it to the progs, and the best they can do is 6 billion….
I VOTED FOR CONSERVATIVE ACTION AND ALL I GOT WAS DEM LIGHT.
Is there no trickery that the uberleft will not try! This "grasping at straws" manuver is bull! What Gov. Walker should do is to take a page out of Oprahbama's playbook and disregard the ruling. SIMPLE
No, he was a constitutionalists.
There, I saw you needed some help figuring out the truth.
First of all, is it legal for the judge to do this? Second, I agree with Keltic1, it will eventually pass. However, were I a governor of any state that has public sector unions with collective bargaining rights, I'd immediately begin privatizing those services. Especially the schools. I was shocked after watching that documentary Waiting for Superman. It is sad and sick that these people are willing to hurt the very kids they claim to be so concerned about. What a scam.
and self-seeking parasitic lawyers.
LOL, and you teabaggers thought you were gonna get away with it too, LOL
She can be ousted at the next election cycle.
Walker should send out the pink slips now.
LOL! The beginning of the unraveling of the devious and underhanded attempt by Scott "Imperial" Walker to fist this legislation through.
Griffiths, "Wisconsin Senate Republicans Did Not Violate the Open Meetings Law."
http://biggovernment.com/jgriffith/2011/03/14/wis...
Days ago I called out this unqualified amateur on his laughable assertions. Proven right again.
I expect Griffiths to retract and apologize for his ill-informed, ridiculous, and lazy accusations made in his article. Joel's "opinion" is so completely out to lunch that it raises serious questions about his ability to competently practice law. How did he think that his laughable analysis of the pertinent legislation could possibly be correct in the face of the legal opinion presented by Dreps, someone with real expertise.
Proof of more Breitbartian buffoonery.
In this case, Lost, it would be to impeach the Bitch, the dog that she is acting like right now …we'll see.
Stop. Voting. For. Democrats.
Stop. Voting. For. Republicans. Who. Act. Like. Democrats.
Exactly. The left WILL get it's way, no matter what the people vote for, no matter what the people's representatives do.
We already live under a monarchy, a black robed one. This is why the left fights tooth and nail over supreme court justices, and it's damn well time that we start opposing THEIR picks in the same political way the NSDP does to ours.
No more than 20% of people poll as liberals in any poll conducted. The democrat agenda is FAR to the left of liberal, in the realm of socialism/marxism, and you won't get 2% who will poll as that. This is why they know they will NEVER win their transformation of America into a marxist dictatorship at the ballot box, so they act to get it undemocratically. By controlling the courts they can take their agenda out of reach of legislators and impossible to overturn with an election.
If Obama decides to forego the 2012 elections (which he IS going to lose unless the GOP majorly screws up) and just declare himself Chinese Emperor no doubt there are judges out there who would twist and contort the Constitution and law in some evil fashion to justify it.
The other leg of power for the left is, of course, the unions. Public sector unions are the reason why the democrats support profligate spending, because a certain percentage of everything they spend returns to them in the form of kickback from union dues. In closed union states, the Democrats have the power to effectively COMPEL people to contribute money to their campaigns.
This is why they absolutely cannot allow what Walker is trying to do to stand and they cannot allow this idea of getting rid of public sector unions as a means of controlling costs to spread.
Yeah, if you can't win by the legislative process, then use judicial activism.
Isn't that what you guys called the Fla. judge's ruling that Obamacare was unconstitutional? Judicial activism…..?
Why it should be illegal for lawyers to be judges, example no. 2,272,459.
and re-institute all those penalties on the fleebagger 14!!
Fla. federal judge rules Obamacare unconstitutional – 'The beginning of the unraveling of the devious and underhanded attempt by Imperial Obama and company to fist this legislation through'
Right……….?
P.S. – Just because a far left county judge issues a restraining order doesn't mean the open meetings law was violated – and the author was absolutely correct when he pointed out the exceptions to the open meetings law, and that they made the actions of the Wi. legislators LEGAL.
Good point, well taken. My anger got the best of me…..Think, then type.
Did troll kindergarten get out early today?
Go ask your mommy if you can have a snack.
If socialism is so great why does it *always* end up having to be forced upon a society to be implemented?
These men do not value and respect the Constitution, they reject it.
This is exactly what the founders intended the Constitution to protect us against!
These are truly evil men.
Well… now that the fleebaggers are back in state why not just pass the whole thing?
At the very least they should send you a flipping T-Shirt. Gezzz.
It is time for the Governor to bring in the National Guard and start using his Power to Enforce his Will.
Well, just like it's Obamacare and do it anyway. TWO judges ruled against Obamacare, and they're telling the states they have to proceed any way.
Anyone who has read my posts before knows that I have said I fear the judicial system more than any branch of gov't, just for these reasons.
They step in when they shouldn't, and stay out of the way when they should intercede.
Agreed. This time, make it permenent.
Time to get tought with the freeloaders. Very tough.
Enough with the kid gloves.
Judicial activism at it's best. A temporary setback…It doesn't matter, one way or another, the Wisconsin law will eventually go into effect!
This is a county judge over turned a state legislature on what
she calls a violation of open meetings law because they had
less then 24 hours notice. This is wrong they had weeks of notice
of a vote. Some people decided to run from their jobs instead of
doing their jobs. The people that ran from their obligations are
the ones that voted a 1 billion plus tax increase a year or two
ago.
http://gayteaparty.blogspot.com/2011/03/activist-...
Does the judge look like Susan Boyle?
How does one go about finding a sympathetic judge?
Too bad we can't round up all of the trolls and unionites and send them to Cuba — the land of equality, where there are no greedy captitalists and workers live in paradise.
Why not? If it's good enough for the sainted Chairman O, then why shouldn't Walker tell the court to stick it?
Typical Democrats' idea of 'democracy'- if they lose a vote, reverse it by any means necessary. Remember how the lefties searched the nation for the most left-st judge they could find, and for a brief while got the ACORN defunding declared a 'bill of attainder?' Hell, remember Florida 2000?
Never give up…Never give in.
I hope more Americans understand that you can't compromise with bullies and this this is war. It's take to get tough with the flee-baggers.
Its a man baby!
Really, he was a constitutionalist. He based his decision on regulating "inactivity". I have a question for you. Lets assume, shall we, an uninsured motorist travels across state lines and gets seriously injured in a traffic accident that is their fault. Do you think they will want "active" medical care or will they settle for "inactive" medical care?
Part 1.
The Wisconsin Open Meeting Law (Wis. Stat. Sect. 19.81-19.98) provides that the Senate and the Assembly are covered, the Legislature has, in the past, decided that its actions would be covered by the law (Sect. 19.87). The law further states that any rule of the Assembly or the Senate that is different from the generic provisions of the Open Meeting Law takes precedence (Sect. 19.87(2)). Senate Rule 93 states that no notice is required for meetings such as that have occurred here.
The law gives enforcement jurisdiction to the Attorney General, the District Attorney in the county where the violation took place or any individual. (Sect. 19.97). If the court determines that the meeting was held in violation of the Open Meeting Law the action taken at that meeting is voidable (not automatically void). (Sect. 19.97(3)). However the Court must make balance the public interest in the action against the public interest in the open meeting provisions to void the action.
The Senate has determined that it’s rules concerning conference committees is in conflict with the Open Meeting Law and therefore the rule prevails. The Senate followed its rules.
(cont.)
Part 2.
The Legislature has three courses of action it can now take:
(1) Sit it out and see what the judge and later the appeals courts decide;
(2) Change the Open Meeting Law to deprive the court of jurisdiction over the Senate and the Assembly (there are a number of options from excluding the legislature to making the Attorney General the only person who can bring the action to restricting jurisdiction to the Supreme Court or even giving the Senate exclusive jurisdiction over the claim); or
(3) Pass the law again with the Open Meeting Law provisions followed.
That really doesn't make sense ?
But anyway Obama care will go to the Supremes since we are at 2 and 2 and the 2 that are for it
(so to speak ) have ruled parts of it was un- constitutional…
Your perception that we would like Activist judges is wrong ….
I disagree that this is "Judicial Activism" The Judge received a filing from a democrat, stayed the law and will hear the case. How is that different from the Florida Judge who invalidated Obamacare?
An earlier poster (Patriot1974) hit the nail on the head with his analysis that this is simply another stall tactic for the unions to make up deals before the laws go into effect. Gotta hand it to democrats, they now how to throw up the roadblocks. Republicans need to stop whining about "Judicial Activism" and start playing hardball.
No limb in Dane County. The most liberal county in the midwest.
You've just been Tea Bagged, azzhole: http://i55.tinypic.com/2u4h6l3.jpg
Not in Dane County – she's a hero there, will be re-elected for life. Dane County is a world of its own. Better to deprive Dane County courts of jurisdiction over the legislature.
How's that hope and change thingy going for yuh: http://i38.tinypic.com/smqetx.jpg ???
Salad Tosser!
Which one? The Judge or the DA? Maybe both! I think that recall is the procedure in Wisconsin.
I've never understood how a law can be stalled in court when it has yet to be published and take effect. There are no violations of a law that has yet to be put in place. This is a stall tactic, and nothing more.
And my other observation, is how is stalling this law any different from stalling Obamacare from taking place? Aside from the numerous accusations of "Judicial Activism", we do have a third branch of government for a reason. Iif we don't like how judges rule, we have the impeachment option, as well as elections. We the people, need to understand who we are voting onto the benches.
"passed a law which a darn judge said violated the law "
No; the judge said that the law violated The Constitution.
Perhaps just a difference of semantics, but an important one.
I think the problem might be that the person who is in charge of publishing the law so it can take effect is a Democrat.
I would love to see that happen though. Give them a taste of their own medicine just to be able to see all the tantrums thrown by the pro-union people would be worth it.
I saw this coming, So ' Walker get the next vote's into proceeding's, set the time and place right after this progressive, activist judge make's this ruling to go by way of the Union's. Stay a head of the curve. Reinstate and proceed with the layoff's and add another 1,500 because you can. Big Labor, big liar's and sore loser's.
Where's the out-rage with those fleebagger Dem's. Blame and deflect,,, this is getting old, can we please move-forward to the next 56 state's!
Driving a vehicle IS activity.
Crossing a state line (or a street) IS activity.
Sitting in your living room without health insurance is not activity.
Then there is the example given by Coulter; what if a future Congress or state legislature or judge decides that you must buy a gun?
oh? You mean the "activist" judges that rule by the Consititution?
This is not a trick nor was this lawsuit unanticipated. The Republicans have had a way to deal with each roadblock that the Democrats have attempted. I am sure that they have a strategy for dealing with this problem. As others have stated – This is a stall that will not prevent the inevitable, the law changes will be passed and enacted.
"Judge Maryann Sumi has made her decision. Now lets see her enforce it."
What a wonderful, uplifting moment that would be.
Too bad the cops are unionized, too.
No, You are now 3-2 and the last opinion destroyed the "inactivity" argument because once someone gets sick or injured they want very "active" medical care.
Leave it to an idiot to not understand a judgement of constitutionality vs. re-reading, stretching and judicial "interpretation to suit".
As stated above, grasping at straws….
Yeah, I don't understand. They had three weeks or so to come back…but, nope, they hung out in a hotel room in another state.
This Judge needs to be taken off the bench.
That's your interpretation of "Inactivity"?
Jeezzz-sus………..What an idiot…………
Why does this not surprise me?
Heh….exactly…..
watch her bank account…..
apparently, according to Michael Moore, they have great healthcare for their citizens in Cuba to boot!. So thats a a bonus for them.
Typical prog. thinking. Wants the rule of law when his social engineering is at stake. Couldn't care less about rule of law when the midnight, backdoor deal of Obamacare was unconstitutionally rammed down the throats of Americans. I think that this is why the average American is waking up to the blatant, despicable hypocrisy of the statist. At least I for one am about ready for my head to explode if I hear one more word from these thug bastards.
Yeah, "female" democrat judges (see Kagan and the "wise" Latina) seem to sport the bull dyke look.
This will be the end for the Left. They are being exposed more and more everyday. They can flex, preen and shout all they want; but they are gone.
LOL. Yeah, I got ripped off I think.
C'mon people! Y'all are losing this one big time. Better go fight a battle you can win – like who is better at name-calling and adolescent humor. Meantime, the big dogs will mop up the mess you brats created in WI and elsewhere, keep the WH in '12, increase the majority in the Senate, and take back the House now that independent voters see how ridiculous the Republican Party and its ignorant Tea Party bullies have become. But hey, keep whining about how Unions are anti-American, by all means.
Walker will send out the pink slips, you haven't won anything HA HA HA HA
And right after the unions get their new contracts approved then Ozanne will more than likely drop any objections to the law.
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