MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Public worker and teachers unions argued Tuesday that their lawsuit seeking to strike down a Wisconsin law that drew massive protests and made the state the center of a national fight over union rights should be allowed to proceed, even as the Republican-controlled Legislature sought to have it dismissed.
WTMJ’s Vince Vitrano walked through the process Wednesday on Wis. Morning News. Click the player above.
It is the first challenge to the law known as Act 10 since Wisconsin’s Supreme Court flipped to liberal control last year.
Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost questioned Tuesday whether there was another remedy to address alleged problems with the law short of striking it down. He did not rule from the bench and said he would issue a written order on the Legislature’s request to dismiss the case.
The unions’ attorney argued that the 2011 law should be struck down because it creates unconstitutional exemptions for firefighters and other public safety workers. Attorneys for the Legislature and state agencies countered that the exemptions are legal, have already been upheld by other courts, and that the case should be dismissed.
The judge questioned why different classes of employees were created under the law and some public safety workers were “cherry picked” to retain their collective bargaining rights while others were not.
“Isn’t that an equal protection problem?” he asked the Legislature’s attorney.
Law enforcement groups like the State Patrol were exempted from the law, and others such as the state Capitol Police were not, because there could be a public safety threat if they went on strike or had other job disruptions, said the Legislature’s attorney Misha Tseytlin.
That’s a legally allowable reason to create separate classes of employees who are subject to the law, Tseytlin said. He said the court should not become a “super Legislature” and try to examine the “minutiae” and “granular detail” of why one group was exempted while another was not.
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