Wis. Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011 legislation aimed at curbing the collective-bargaining rights of most public employees faces a state Supreme Court test of whether it infringes their rights to free association and free speech.
The seven justices in Madison are schedule today to consider a trial court judge’s ruling last year that parts of the measure known as Act 10 unduly burden union members’ rights.
“Collective bargaining in the public employee context is not a constitutional right,” state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said, arguing for a reversal in a filing with the high court. “Act 10 merely changed the scope of decision-making authority the state chooses to share through collective bargaining.”
Advocated by Walker, a first-term Republican, the legislation requires annual recertification votes for union representation and made the payment of union dues voluntary. Some groups of public safety officers are exempt from its strictures.
Opposition to Act 10 drew protests outside the state’s Capitol and triggered a recall election last year in which Walker prevailed over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett.
A U.S. appeals court in Chicago upheld the measure in its entirety in a Jan. 18 ruling. In a 2-1 vote, that panel reversed a lower-court decision that the annual recertification provision was invalid, as was the prohibition of voluntary deduction of union dues from the paychecks of general employees only.
Constitutional Questions’
Opponents of the measure, counting the opposing federal appeals court vote, and the state and federal trial court rulings invalidating parts of the measure, told Wisconsin’s top court justices that three of the five judges who have looked at the law have found it constitutionally defective.
“Those outcomes show that this case presents close constitutional questions that need careful consideration,” attorneys for the challengers said in their appellate brief.
“Plaintiffs do not contend that municipal employees have a constitutional right to force their employers to negotiate collectively with them,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said. “Rather, they claim a constitutional right to self-organization and to associate with a union, including for collective- bargaining purposes.”
Trial court Judge Juan Colas in Madison ruled last year that parts of the legislation unduly burdened affected workers’ constitutional rights to free speech and free association.
Final Resolution’
A three-judge panel of Wisconsin’s intermediate-level Court of Appeals in April asked the state’s highest court to decide the issue after the Walker administration appealed the Colas decision.
“It’s hard to imagine a dispute with greater statewide effect or greater need for a final resolution by the Supreme Court,” the appellate judges said in their 24-page request.
The high court in June said it would take the case.
The case is Madison Teachers Inc. v. Walker, 2012-ap-02067, Wisconsin Supreme Court (Madison). The trial-court case is Madison Teachers Inc. v. Walker, 11-cv-03774, Dane County, Wisconsin, Circuit Court, Branch 10 (Madison).
