Bad Publicity
March 25, 2011 5:45 PM
Moments ago, late on a Friday, the Walker Administration published Act 10, the portions of his budget repair bill that gut collective bargaining for public employees. They did this in defiance of a court order and without the approval of the Secretary of State, whose responsibility it is to publish laws, making them operable.
It's hard to comprehend this level of arrogance. A court hearing has been scheduled for this Tuesday to consider the underlying arguments that resulted in the temporary restraining order issued by Judge Maryanne Sumi. And the state Supreme Court has been asked by the Court of Appeals to consider the more fundamental legal questions involved. For the Governor to simply go ahead in spite of all of this and have the act published in an attempt to do an end run around the legal process is consistent, unfortunately, with how he and the GOP legislative majority have acted throughout this whole sad series of events.
As of this writing nobody is sure what this all means. Wasn't the temporary restraining order still in effect? If an act is published without the approval of the Secretary of State does it really now carry the force of law? I've asked City Attorney Mike May to research these questions and certainly the District Attorney and others will be all over this as well.
Stay tuned. In the meantime, join me in amazement at a level of sheer disrespect for the law we haven't seen in this state before.
