One of the Laws the Wisconsin Republican Based Presidential Candidacy Upon Is Unconstitutional, Says Judge
Five years ago Governor Scott Walker rammed through a union busting bill and signed it into law. Months of protests before the bill passed and after the Wisconsin Republican signed it into law captivated the nation. It also prompted a recall election, which Walker survived. The law, Walker insisted, was necessary to fix the state economy, despite there being not a shred of truth to that claim.
Last year, Gov. Walker went further, signing into law another union-busting bill, making Wisconsin the 25th “right to work” state in the nation.
Today, a Wisconsin County judge declared Walker’s union-busting law unconstitutional.
Combined, those laws are literally the platform that Walker based his presidential candidacy upon. He even insisted that since he stood up to the unions, he could stand up to ISIS.
The lawsuit was filed the day after Walker signed the “right to work” bill into law, by the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers District 2 of Menasha, and Machinists Local Lodge 1061 of Milwaukee.
Because Wisconsin state law “obliges unions to represent all employees at so-called closed-shop companies, regardless of whether those workers formally belong to the union,” the unions argued Gov. Walker’s “right-to-work law violates the state constitution’s prohibition against the taking of property without providing just compensation,” the Daily Reporter explains.
Dane County Judge William Foust ruled the “right to work” allows a “taking” of union property, the Daily Reporter notes, making it unconstitutional.
Karoli Kuns at Crooks and Liars writes the “key sentence” in the ruling states that unions “have a legally protectable property interest in the services they perform for their members and non-members.”
The ruling is here.
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel will appeal.Â
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Image by Joe Brusky via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ