The Wisconsin Supreme Court has announced that it will take up litigation surrounding a key procedural challenge to Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union law, with a date set for this June 6 — but, as it turns out, the nature of the arguments in question could only spur further action by the state Republican leaders.
As WisPolitics reports, the court is set to hold arguments not on the procedural challenge itself, but on whether they should take jurisdiction in the case itself. This followed a request in late March a by a lower appeals court, for the state Supreme Court to take up the case.
Meanwhile, state Republican leaders said on Wednesday that if the courts do not take action by early June, they could re-pass the law as part of the state budget. And as it should be noted, this was always a legal option given the particular nature of this fight.
In late March, Dane County (Madison) Judge Maryann Sumi blocked the law on procedural grounds, issuing a temporary restraining order on the grounds the plaintiff, the Dane County District Attorney, had a likelihood of success in his complaint that a key conference committee used to advance the bill — and to get around the state Senate Dems’ walkout from the state — had violated the state’s open-meetings law by failing to give proper 24-hours notice.
The restraining order was based on the manner in which the law was passed, and not a judgment on the content of the bill itself. Indeed, Judge Sumi noted that state leaders could address the issue by re-passing the law itself, and do it in a procedurally correct manner.
The Walker administration then made multiple attempts to disregard the ruling and implement the law anyway, before ultimately backing down in the face of repeated orders.
