Contact: Rep. Ohnstad, 608-266-0455
MADISON – Today, Representative Tod Ohnstad (D-Kenosha) issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s anti-worker Janus decision:
“The Supreme Court’s 5-4 partisan decision in Janus v. AFSCME is yet another cruel blow to workers in Wisconsin and across the nation. Eliminating the rights of working families to collectively bargain for a better life will continue to shrink Wisconsin’s middle-class. At a time when the middle-class way of life is disappearing for too many, the Janus decision also means even fewer family-supporting jobs will be available to returning veterans who wish to serve their country as public servants.
Janus was handed down by a bare one-vote majority of Republican-appointed Justices, and constitutes a radical shift in the Supreme Court’s labor law precedents. The devastating impact this ruling will have on working people is too great to measure.
In Trump vs. Hawaii, yet another partisan 5-4 decision authorizes President Trump to abuse his executive authority and bar Muslims from entering the United States. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, ‘It leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.’” As Justice Sotomayor also points out, we know President Trump seeks to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the United States because Candidate Trump said so himself repeatedly in tweets and campaign statements.
The President’s superficial attempt to bar (some) North Koreans and Venezuelans from entering the country is simply a transparent attempt to cover up a blatantly discriminatory, unconstitutional executive order. Make no mistake: President Trump is discriminating against an entire group of religious believers against the bedrock American principle of freedom of religion. This decision will be looked back upon as an ugly day in the history of the nation and the First Amendment.”
