Justice Ann Walsh Bradley: Act 10 is 'textbook' example of unconstitutionality

[hue]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/justice-ann-walsh-bradley-act-is-textbook-example-of-unconstitutionality/article_fdd942ae-18bb-11e4-b972-001a4bcf887a.html

The majority opinion of the Wisconsin Supreme Court upholding a law curtailing collective bargaining rights of public employees dilutes the right to freedom of association by opening the door for the state to withhold benefits and punish individuals based on their membership in a labor union, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson say in a dissenting opinion.

The 28-page dissent (PDF, starting on page 102) in a lawsuit brought by Madison Teachers Inc. and Milwaukee Local 61 of AFL-CIO accuses the court majority of ignoring “over a century’s worth of jurisprudence and undermin(ing) a right long held sacred in our state.”

The majority of the court issued a long-awaited 90-page opinion Thursday — written by Justice Michael Gableman — that reverses Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas and declares Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s signature legislation, to be constitutional.

Bradley writes in the dissent that the majority ignores the plaintiffs’ claim that Act 10 infringes on the constitutional right to organize into a collective bargaining unit, and erroneously focuses on the right to bargain as a collective bargaining unit, and then determines no such right exists.

[Scuba]

1. This State is so screwed up, it's really very discouraging.

[riversedge]

2. I feel the same way but

will be canvassing again this weekend. We have to go forward.

[Scuba]

3. I hear you. I will never give up.