May 26th, 2011 
davidguide Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – A Dane County judge on Thursday suspended the implementation of a law repealing collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin on grounds that Republican lawmakers passed it illegally.
Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that GOP senators violated the state’s open meetings law when they passed Act 10 on March 9 on short notice.
Under the open meetings law, the public should be given at least two hours’ notice for any public meetings.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat, petitioned the court to block the law after Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca claimed in a complaint that the public and Democrat lawmakers were not notified properly of the convening of a Senate committee that amended the bill and voted to pass it into law.
Senate staff announced the meeting on bulletin boards in the Capitol and informed legislators by e-mail at past 4 p.m. on March 9. The committee convened at 6 p.m. that day so the notice was made less than two hours as mandated by state law.
Only 20 people were allowed to attend the meeting, with Barca as the only Democrat present. Some 3,000 people who were refused entry into the meeting room signed a petition to make a record of the incident.
Gov. Scott Walker sought the law to balance Wisconsin’s 2012-2013 budget. The case will go to the state Supreme Court, which will decide on June 6 if it will take it.
Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, the brother of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, insisted that Act 10 was passed legally and expressed optimism that the Supreme Court will uphold its validity.
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