Controversial Wisconsin Union Law Published Despite Court Order Blocking It

March 12, 2011: Protesters attend a rally at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison. (AP)

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin officials couldn't agree Friday about whether an explosive law taking away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights was about to take effect after a nonpartisan legislative bureau published it despite a court order blocking implementation.

The Legislative Reference Bureau took the action at 3:15 p.m. Friday, sending confused lawmakers and legal experts scrambling to determine what's next for the measure that has brought waves of chaos to the state since it first was proposed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Legislative Reference Bureau director Steve Miller insisted the action doesn't mean the law takes effect Saturday. He says that won't actually happen until Secretary of State Doug La Follette orders the law published in a newspaper, and a judge ordered last week that La Follette not do anything.

"It's not implementation at all," Miller said. "It's simply a matter of forwarding an official copy to the secretary of state."

La Follette said he didn't know what the action means, but he's not doing anything given the court order.

"I think we're going to have to get some legal opinion on this," he said.

But Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who said he went to the Reference Bureau with the idea, said the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

"It's my opinion it's published, it's on the legislative website, it's law," Fitzgerald said. "It was clear to me after our discussions this morning, if it in fact it is posted and it says published and there's a specific date on it, it would be very hard to argue this was not law."

John Jagler, a spokesman for Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, said he also assumed the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

Walker's top aide Mike Huebsch, secretary of the Department of Administration, issued a statement saying he had been notified that the law had been published.

"The administration will carry out the law as required," Huebsch said.

Requests for additional clarification about whether the governor believed the law was indeed in effect were not returned.

A judge last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking any further implementation of the law while the court considers challenges to its approval. The order specifically blocked La Follette from publishing the law.

But the Reference Bureau said it's still required to publish every new law within 10 working days after it's signed by the governor, on the date designated by the secretary of state.

Walker signed the collective bargaining measure March 11 and La Follette had designated Friday as the date of publication. But after the judge's restraining order, La Follette sent a letter to the Reference Bureau saying he was rescinding his setting of the publication date.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a statement saying it would evaluate how the publication of the law, which it said was lawful, affects the pending lawsuit. The bureau's action did not require anything to be done by La Follette and he was not in violation of the court's order, the DOJ statement said.

The statement did not say whether the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who filed the lawsuit challenging the law that led to the restraining order, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Ozanne's lawsuit and two others allege lawmakers broke the state open meetings law by hastily calling a special committee meeting to put the bill in a form that the Senate could pass it without any Democrats present. All 14 Senate Democrats had fled the state three weeks earlier to block a vote on the measure by preventing quorum.

The new law requires nearly all public sector workers, including teachers, to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance, changes that amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. It also strips them of their ability to collectively bargain for anything except wages no higher than inflation.

Consideration of the proposal spurred massive protests that grew to more than 85,000 people the day after Walker signed the measure and made Wisconsin the national focus the fight over union rights.

Union leaders were outraged with the latest twist in the ongoing saga.

"This is another sign that the governor and Legislature are in a desperate power grab to take away the voice of teachers, support staff, nurses, home health care workers and other public employees," said Mary Bell, president of the statewide teachers' union. "These tactics are not in the Wisconsin tradition of open government and do not represent the will of the people."

Marty Beil, executive director of the state's largest public employee union, said he didn't think the action meant the law was going to take effect.

"The problem is they're (Republicans) the dictator here so we have to go into a court of law and reaffirm it," he said. "This is Scott Fitzgerald and Scott Walker's gulag here. It's craziness. These guys are off the wall. They're drunk with some kind of power or misconception of reality."

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, called the action an "illegal backdoor maneuver."

"This is a dark day for Wisconsin and a travesty to our democracy," he said.