Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Ct. rules Maryann Sumi exceeded authority, affirms Gov. Scott Walker law limiting public unions

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6/14/11, "Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds law limiting public employee unions," American Thinker

"The public employee unions lose a big one, as the high court upholds the law passed by the Republican-led legislature and signed by Governor Scott Walker. Recall that this is the law that led to 14 Democrat state senators fleeing the state, and to raucous, often vulgar and destructive demonstrations in the state capitol in Madison. Amy Merrick of the Wall Street Journal reports:

"Tuesday's opinion, joined by three of the Supreme Court's seven justices, said the circuit-court judge, Maryann Sumi, exceeded her authority. The justices wrote, "One of the courts that we are charged with supervising has usurped the legislative power which the Wisconsin Constitution grants exclusively to the legislature."


Justice David Prosser, who narrowly survived a re-election battle in April that became a referendum on the collective-bargaining law and Mr. Walker's policies, issued a separate concurring opinion.

The court's remaining three justices concurred in part and dissented in part. Although the justices are chosen in nonpartisan elections, the court is generally considered to be split 4-3 in favor of conservatives."...

Legal Insurrection's Professor Jacobson calls it a "sweeping victory."

"This also is a vindication for the legal strategy of not backing down to the unjust, unwise, uncalled-for, unlawful rulings of Judge Sumi, who engaged in clearly unsound legal reasoning which -- whether intended or not --
  • took on the appearance of political posturing.""...
From Legal Insurrection's analysis of the matter as it happened:

"Judge Sumi's Mess ("Judge Maryann Sumi preemptively issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) which she thought ... would stop the publication of the budget repair bill, and therefore prevent the bill from becoming law. This was an unprecedented move, and none of the legal arguments which attacked the validity of the law necessitated such interference in the legislative process.")

Judge Sumi Throws Out Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law ("It is one thing for a court to rule on the validity of a law, but quite another thing for a court to stop the legislature from making law. Judge Sumi gives short shrift (at pp. 13-14) to the key Wisconsin case which says courts must await a law coming into effect before ruling on the law, Goodland v. Zimmerman. Judge Sumi summarily dismisses the import of Goodland by stating that it was a pre-Open Meetings law ruling. Well, chronologically yes, but the principle is the same; courts rule on legislation,
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6/14/11, "Supreme Court reinstates (Gov. Scott Walker's) collective bargaining law," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Marley and Walker

"Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers."...



via Mark Levin Show

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