After a fierce legislative battle, a hotly contested judicial election, and a temporary setback, victory at last:
The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the state's controversial collective-bargaining law Tuesday, ruling that a lower-court judge who put the law on hold improperly interfered with the legislature.Fourteen Democratic state senators fled Wisconsin for three weeks this spring to block the law, which eliminates most collective-bargaining rights for most of the state's public employees. The workers will have to contribute more out of their paychecks for their health insurance and pensions, and it will become tougher for unions to retain members. Thousands of protesters came to the state capitol in Madison to oppose it.
Republican legislators passed the bill, and Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed it March 11.
Guess who was among the four primary concurring judges? Oh yes:
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.
And lest hysterical leftists start shrieking about "fascism" and dictators, might I remind them of the fact that another infamously right-wing state is advancing similar measures to help salvage its own overburdened budget?
UPDATE - Here's the decision.
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