It was an interesting and contentious week in Wisconsin and elsewhere, as Governor Scott Walker attempted to sidestep a judicial order by getting an agency with no official authority to publish the controversial law that would put a halt to collective bargaining for Wisconsin’s public employees.
On Friday, Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court extended a temporary restraining order blocking the legislation for at least two months, as she considers whether Republicans passed it illegally.
On Tuesday, Judge Sumi chastised state officials for ignoring her earlier order to halt the law’s publication.
“Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of (the law) was enjoined,” the Judge said. “That is what I now want to make crystal clear.”
The Legislative Reference Bureau – which was not named in the restraining orders – published the law on the Legislature’s website. However, they have no legal authority to do so and make it binding. State law requires a law to be published in the state newsletter to be official.
As a result for a week, attorneys and state officials disagreed over whether the law was legally in effect.
However, on Friday Governor Walker told the public that the the administration had put the law on hold for now.
“The bottom line is we’re going to comply with the court order with our hope that once this is all sorted out we’ll see the law is in effect,” the Governor said.
Republicans could pass the bill for a second time. But according to leaders in the legislature, they will not do so.
“Republicans are reluctant to take up the collective bargaining measure again for reasons both political and pragmatic,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Fundamentally, they believe they acted properly and that courts can’t interfere with how they operate. Also, they are not eager to take up a bill that drew tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol for weeks and forced Republicans in tight districts to take a tough vote – especially now that efforts are under way to recall eight Republicans and eight Democrats in the Senate.
“Republican leaders also know even if they pass the law again, they will face legal challenges. Two other lawsuits have already been filed, and others are expected,” the paper continued.
Meanwhile, the Ohio legislature has passed, with considerably less fanfare, a bill that is even tougher on unions.
Wrote the New York Times on Thursday, “It is perhaps surprising that Ohio faced more limited public demonstrations, considering that its bill, which Gov. John R. Kasich signed Thursday, goes further than Wisconsin’s in several important ways.”
The paper continued, “While both laws severely limit public employees’ ability to bargain collectively — they both prohibit any bargaining over health coverage and pensions — the Ohio law largely eliminates bargaining for the police and firefighters. Wisconsin’s law leaves those two groups’ bargaining rights untouched. Ohio’s law also gives city councils and school boards a free hand to unilaterally impose their side’s final contract offer when management and union fail to reach a settlement.”
“Notwithstanding the differences in legislation, the push by those states’ Republican governors and Republican-dominated legislatures points to a pendulum swing away from what many unions and Democrats see as a fundamental right for public employees: the right to bargain over wages and benefits,” they wrote.
In both states, union members are maneuvering to overturn the legislation.
Reported the New York Times, “In Ohio, union leaders plan to dispatch rank-and-file members around the state to collect signatures to trigger a referendum. And in Wisconsin — in addition to a lawsuit that has resulted in a court order temporarily suspending the anti-union law for violating the open meetings act — unions have collected tens of thousands of signatures to hold recall elections aimed at ousting a half-dozen Republican state senators, as a first step to repeal the law.”
In the meantime, the war against working people continued in Maine.
Republican Governor Pau LePage and Republican members of the state legislature are attempting to loosen child labor laws.
Reported the Huffington Post, “The minimum wage in Maine is $7.50 an hour, and there is no training or subminimum wage for students. But under a new piece of legislation introduced in the state’s House of Representatives, employers would be able to pay anyone under the age of 20 as little as $5.25 an hour for their first 180 days on the job.”
It continued, “The bill, LD 1346, also eliminates the maximum number of hours a minor 16 years of age or older can work on a school day and allows a minor under the age of 16 to work up to four hours on a school day during hours when school is not in session.”
Wrote the Post, “With Maine’s unemployment above 7 percent, state Rep. Paul Gilbert (D) wonders why Republicans are pushing to create a pool of cheap labor when so many people are begging for jobs.”
“If we had a shortage of job applicants or potential workers, then you could look at other populations to ease that strain on the workforce,” Rep. Gilbert told The Huffington Post. “But we don’t have that right now. We have an excess of job applicants here in Maine, as well across the country.”
The Post further reported, “The state Senate is also currently considering a bill (LD 516) that would allow 16- and 17-year-old students to work until 11:00 p.m. on school nights. Currently, they’re allowed to work until 10:00 p.m.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
“In the meantime, the war against working people continued in Maine.”
—David M. Greenwald “reporting”
I’ve never hidden where I’m coming from, so I’m not sure why the need to take the shot at me. If you have an argument to make, I’m all ears.
JR
I am interested, given all the possibilities for outraged commentary from both sides in this piece, what made you single out this one
statement ?
David
I have been wondering for a while now when we were going to see attempts to drive down wages by this kind of manipulation. I guess I know now. Thanks for the post.
Again, both sides of the pension issue entrenched, so that draconian measures are the result. I would much prefer to see some compromise on both sides…
[i]It continued, “The bill, LD 1346, also eliminates the maximum number of hours a minor 16 years of age or older can work on a school day and allows a minor under the age of 16 to work up to four hours on a school day during hours when school is not in session.”[/i]
That looks like a guarantee that students from lower income families will never get the education to get themselves out of poverty.
EMR
Completely agree that what is needed is a collaborative approach.
On a tangential, but related matter I read yesterday new statistics ( from the US Bureau of Labor Stats) regarding increases in executive pay. As one example, seems that Goldman Sachsen has doubled Blankfein’s compensation from 2010 to a proposed compensation of 19 million.
Also receiving substantial increases were the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Does any one else see something ironic in allowing those whose job it is to manipulate already existing wealth to increase their already magnificent compensations while pushing for lowering allowable compensation for those actually producing something or providing a service while just struggling to get by ? Or is this really just me being a “bleeding heart liberal” ?
The part of the story David forgot(?) to tell you:
It sounds like Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court is hardly impartial. Was there some judge shopping in this case?
“Jake Sinderbrand, son of Judge Maryann Sumi, poses a bit of a problem for his mother.” Sumi is the county judge who on Friday temporarily blocked implementation of the collective bargaining-related law passed by the Wisconsin legislature and signed by Governor Scott Walker.You see, Jake Sinderbrand is “a former field manager with the AFL-CIO and data manager for the SEIU State Council.” Both organizations have members who are employed in Wisconsin’s public sector.
That’s already a pretty clear conflict of interest, one would think.
more fuel to the fire.
Maryann Sumi’s husband/partner, is Carl Sinderbrand (who, as a side note, is also Chairman of the environmental advocacy group Clean Wisconsin).
Visiting web directories, one finds that one of Carl Sinderbrand’s three listed physical addresses is the same as Jake Sinderbrand’s; the other two appear to be office building suites. Maryann Sumi, but if she lives in the same home as Carl, it would appear that she also lives in the same home as Jake. This would compound the level of conflicted interests.”
“Let’s recap what happened in Wisconsin (that link leads to a whole slew of links that track this epic foul-up by the Democratic party in Wisconsin over what should have been a simple enough demonstration of the principle that elections have consequences).
•Wisconsin Democratic Senators run away rather than do their jobs. This prevents a quorum for bills that are primarily financial in nature.
•Wisconsin Republican Senators end up passing what they can, including a critical union reform bill.
•Having returned from self-imposed Illinois exile, Wisconsin Democrats find a convenient judge (Maryann Sumi) to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), on what is frankly a misunderstanding of the law.
•Judge Sumi makes a mistake in the TRO by only enjoining the Secretary of State (Democrat) from publishing the law. For example, she did not enjoin the Legislative Research Bureau (LRB) from publishing the law, despite the fact that they are required to by law.
•The LRB publishes the law, as per their statutory requirements; as the TRO did not cover that department, they have no choice.
•On Monday, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DoJ) points this detail out to Judge Sumi and asks her to vacate the order, given that the law is published.
•On Tuesday, Judge Sumi reissues her TRO to prevent implementation of the law.
•On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DoA) points out that this ruling was flawed in that it: did not in fact indicate that the law is not in effect; explicitly declined to state that the law was not legally published; and since when did Judge Sumi get to presume to drag the DoA (a non-party in the original dispute) into this mess she made in the first place?
•On Thursday, Judge Sumi has to fix her TRO again to rule that the law is not published, in a fashion that satisfies the DoA.
•At some point in all of this Judge Sumi somewhat plaintively (if you’ll pardon the pun) wonders aloud why the legislative branch simply just doesn’t pass the law again.
•To which Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) effectively replies “Because we did it right the first time, and it’s not like I tell you how to run a courtroom.” Left off is the unstated “Although I apparently should.”
To Rusty49: Thanks for the added context! What a mess! I wondered if the Wisconsin Democrats might have been forum shopping, and you confirmed my suspicions that they were…
medwoman: “Also receiving substantial increases were the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Does any one else see something ironic in allowing those whose job it is to manipulate already existing wealth to increase their already magnificent compensations while pushing for lowering allowable compensation for those actually producing something or providing a service while just struggling to get by ? Or is this really just me being a “bleeding heart liberal”?”
No I don’t think you are being a “bleeding heart liberal” in noting the incongruity of this issue. During the economic downturn, from what I understand (and someone can correct me if I am wrong), only the financial sector (banks and Wall St.) has done well. And yet it is the financial sector (banks and Wall St.) who were the ones guilty of the wrongdoing and received bailouts despite that blatent wrongdoing. Why the financial sector was given gov’t bailouts w no strings attached is beyond me…
ERM
“To Rusty49: Thanks for the added context! What a mess! I wondered if the Wisconsin Democrats might have been forum shopping, and you confirmed my suspicions that they were…”
I know, can you believe it? Talk about a judge that should’ve recused herself.
Rusty49
I agree this does sound like a possible reason for recusal on the part of Judge Sunni.
I am wondering if, as I do, you also believe that Chief Justice Thomas should recuse himself from consideration of the constitutionality of the health reform bill based on his wife’s lobbying activities against it ?
“I am wondering if, as I do, you also believe that Chief Justice Thomas should recuse himself from consideration of the constitutionality of the health reform bill based on his wife’s lobbying activities against it ?”
Medwoman, Mrs. Thomas worked for an organization that lobbied against Obamacare but I couldn’t find anywhere where she personally lobbied against it. But if you want to go there and say that Judge Thomas should recuse himself then don’t you think Judge Elena Kagan should also recuse herself because she was in charge of defending Obamacare as President Obama’s solicitor general when the suit was filed and when the Obama administration first took steps to oppose it which was before he appointed her to the Supreme Court?
JR
I assume you would be equally outraged and also consider it a conflict of interest if it happened to be the case that the judge’s son was in an administrative position without collective bargaining rights with the state and she ruled that Walkers actions were constitutional.
The mission statement of Clean Wisconsin is:
[quote]We help protect the special places that make Wisconsin a special place to live, work, and play by advocating for clean air, clean water, clean energy
[/quote]
Some of their stated recent victories have been to promote legislative measures to limit the amount of phosphorus dumped into waterways, banning mercury in non-essential products, requiring recycling of e-waste, and getting federal funds to restore the great lakes. Not real draconian actions likely to result in the destruction of capitalism in Wisconsin.
Wesley506, her “SON” Jake Sinderbrand is “a former field manager with the AFL-CIO and data manager for the SEIU State Council.” Now don’t you think that might have entered into Judge Sumi’s thought process? At the very least it looks unethical. As far as “Clean Wisconsin” that was just part of the article that I cut and pasted. It really didn’t have much to do with the story except to show her husband was the Chairman.
Rusty49
She didn’t work for it, she founded it. I would direct you to the Liberty Central site where you can follow the “Obamacare” tags.
While none of the information there actually had her name as author, I think it would be safe to say that as the founder, it at least met with her approval.
As for Judge Kagan, I’m not sure. On the face of it this would seem to have merit, however, if it is considered to be an integral part of her job
As solicitor general to defend to the best of her ability the policies of the President,then possibly not. Her job at this time is to render a judicial opinion, not defend an established policy.
[b][s]Tumultuous[/s] Week in Wisconsin and Elsewhere on the Issue of Public Employees[/b]
Tumult is one of my favorite words. It means noisy. Usually, tumult implies or includes violence. As such, war is tumultuous. Its Latin origin (tumēre) means “to swell,” coming from the notion that a noisy crowd swells in an uproar.
We have dozens of words in English which derive from tumēre. For example, a tumor, which is swollen body part. Tumescent is a specifically swollen body part. When you have a swollen ego, you have contumacy, which means “stubborn perverseness or rebelliousness; willful and obstinate resistance or disobedience to authority.”
As Medwoman knows, when you take a drug which causes swelling, it is said to be tumefacient. And when she studied anatomy, surely she learned that a person’s swollen finger is his thumb, which comes to English from tumēre in Latin by way of German.
Rifkin
Fun post.
I would just like to add that most of the associations you have listed have at best neutral (thumb) or negative ( war) connotations.
I can think of one tumescence that frequently is much desired, the gravid uterus !
Ok, David, I think we are through hijacking the conversation.
Interesting piece from New Jersey:
Hearing the music, not the message: Christie a huge Springsteen fan, but he just doesn’t get it
[url]http://www.app.com/article/20110403/NJOPINION03/104030336/1031/NJENT/Hearing-music-not-message?odyssey=nav|head[/url]