There really could be no doubt in anyone’s mind, even those brave people in Governor Walker’s administration that would only communicate to the press via telephone, that the collective bargaining law was not properly published last Friday, and therefore could not be implemented.
Since Friday there has been an ongoing discussion regarding the legal and political angles to this story in coffee shops and around kitchen tables all around Wisconsin. All surely agreed we were in untested waters resulting from the Walker team acting with haste about the collective bargaining law. The problem for all those chatting away this weekend, myself included, was the difficulty of lay people to back up their thoughts with solid legal findings.
We needed to get back to the work-week to start sorting the mess out in court.
That started on Tuesday evening when Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi let it be known that her pervious restraining order had either been ignored or misinterpreted. Further implementation of the collective bargaining law was to cease at once.
“Now that I’ve made my earlier order as clear as it possibly can be, I must state that those who act in open and willful defiance of the court order place not only themselves at peril of sanctions, they also jeopardize the financial and the governmental stability of the state of Wisconsin,” Sumi said.
Tough words. But someone needed to lay the facts bare in such a way that they would be understood.
I suspect what Judge Sumi truly meant was that her original order was flat-out ignored by the Walker Administration. It is clear that Senator Fitzgerald went on a hunt last week to find a loophole for his actions which resulted in his request to the Legislative Reference Bureau on Friday. Fitzgerald’s actions clearly were not in line with the order that Sumi handed down.
While Sumi was making it crystal clear to all sides on Tuesday what she expected, it would not be hard to imagine her adding in a terse tone, “Can you hear me now?”
And who would have blamed her had she actually stated it?
What has taken place in the Republican controlled State Senate, and in the Governor’s office is one of the most outlandish and irresponsible ways to fashion public policy that most in Wisconsin have even witnessed. This is not the way politics should operate in this state.
I know that Governor Walker and his team want to slam dunk the collective bargaining bill, and shortchange the process for a political victory. We all get that fact.
But that is not how the voters of Wisconsin want the process to work.
Walker announced on Friday, February 11th his collective bargaining idea, and laid out a road map to have it pass both houses of the legislature within six days, with two of those being a weekend. It was clear from that moment over-reaching was to be Walker’s modus operandi.
The problem Walker keeps missing is that there is an orderly process for how a bill becomes a law in this state. Every fourth grader receives a copy of this document when they visit the Capitol for a class trip. (They did, at least, when I worked in the Assembly.) The rules of the road are laid out so the process is fair and open for all sides. That is the way Wisconsin likes to play ball.
We are in a sad state when final votes are timed, such as in the State Assembly, so a third of the body never was able to cast a vote, or open meeting laws are flaunted in the State Senate because they seem burdensome.
There are now many twists and turns in the legal wrangling over this matter. As Sumi noted on Tuesday these legal turns are costly to taxpayers.
It all underscores why rules should be followed under the Capitol Dome. When they are not chaos takes place, the credibility of elected officials are tarnished, and the faith people have in the political process continues to erode.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
And how is it that these people don’t have any idea as to what the role of the judiciary is? Fitzgerald of the Assembly said in this article that the Dane County judge had no role in the legislative process–he’s right! We can agree on that, but perhaps not for the same reasons. He says that she has no role in the process because she is blocking the various attempts of the GOP to take even more power than is granted to them. I would contend however that the Dane COunty Judge doesn’t have a role in creating legislation only if the legislative body follows the rules and doesn’t create a series of constitutional questions, and by extension creating a need where she should be involved. The role of the court is exactly that–to right the wrongs committed by other branches of government. That is why we call it checks and balances. Sometimes, the court has to put a stop to foolishness. Check. Balance restored.
I guess we have Walker to thank for the fact that none of this is law. If they would have followed the rules it would have been a slam dunk. But in their arrogance and hubris, it gets tossed to the judicial branch. Even with the Dem14 in Illinois (can’t tell you how much I love those folks now), they could have pulled out collective bargaining, allowed for a debate on it, allowed for the 24 hour notification on it, even piped in their comments from Lincoln Land. It wouldn’t have mattered because they had the votes. We could not have stopped them. I believe in sports this is called an ‘unforced error’.
Well, the new Wisconsin GOP motto is, “What are you going to do about it?”
They have their own standing army (SState Trooper owned by papa fitzgerald) willing to follow whatever order they are given no matter how grimy or unconstitutional it may be.
so they are in contempt. So what? Who is going to enforce whatever sanctions? Certainly not the police. They are afraid of the SState Troopers.