Following Friday LRB Action When Does Collective Bargaining Law Take Effect In Wisconsin?
What is happening tonight is yet another bizarre turn of events in Wisconsin. There is no way that any author could have plotted a better scenario than the one that is actually taking place in Wisconsin these past weeks concerning the actions of Walker and Company and assault on state and public workers.
The governor and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said flatly Friday that the law will take effect on Saturday.
“The administration will carry out the law as required,” said the administration in a statement.
Under state statutes, the secretary of state is required to set a publication date no more than 10 working days after a law is signed. A related statute requires the Reference Bureau — the Legislature’s nonpartisan drafting and research
agency — to publish legislation within 10 days of enactment.
No action by the secretary of state is required for the Reference Bureau to act, Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh said, adding that La Follette did not direct the publication of the law and is not in violation of a temporary court order barring him from publishing the law.
Legislative Reference Bureau director Steve Miller insisted publication by the agency doesn’t mean the law will effect Saturday. He said that won’t actually happen until La Follette orders the law published in a newspaper.
“It’s not implementation of all,” Miller said. “It’s simply a matter of forwarding an official copy to the secretary of state.”
But La Follette wasn’t so sure, saying it wasn’t clear what the action means.
“I think we’re going to have to get some legal opinion on this,” he said.
La Follette had scheduled publication of the law in a legal notice in the Wisconsin State Journal for Friday, but his office rescinded that March 18 after the judge’s order. La Follette also sent the reference bureau a letter the same day rescinding his instructions for a Friday publication date.
But Fitzgerald said attorneys have told him the letter had no standing.
“Every attorney I have consulted said this will now be law,” Fitzgerald said.
I don’t have a direct link to our Blog Master but keep up the good work on covering this part of American history.
Thank you.
“Every attorney” he’s consulted? What does he have, a direct line to Dewey, Cheatham & Howe?
Keep it up, boys. Can you schedule a couple more outrageous stunts running up to the election April 5? Thanks for the help.