A Dane County judge has granted GOP lawmakers’ request to stay his decision overturning large swaths of Act 10 while it’s being appealed after the unions who challenged the 2011 law expressed no opposition to the move.
Judge Jacob Frost had previously put his decision on a temporary hold while he considered the request for a longer stay. He wrote in yesterday’s ruling that allowing an unconstitutional law to be enforced weighed against granting a stay. But that was overshadowed by the “extremely high risk of utter chaos” if his ruling was enforced and public employee unions restarted negotiations only for an appeals court to overturn his decision.
Frost called it a “textbook example of when a circuit court should stay its decision pending appeal.”
Frost this summer found the law inappropriately created different classes of employees, leaving some public safety employees with the continued power to collectively bargain and other general public workers without it. He then last month overturned dozens of provisions in the law, restoring the powers that had been stripped of most public employees 14 years ago under GOP Gov. Scott Walker and a Republican Legislature.
GOP lawmakers have appealed Frost’s ruling to the conservative 2nd District Court of Appeals. The unions that successfully sued to overturn the law have now asked the state Supreme Court to take over that case, and Frost noted the issue will likely proceed to the justices.
Frost wrote his decision could be overturned by the 2nd District only for the Supreme Court to agree with his original ruling.
“This is the exact sort of chaos and uncertainty that a stay pending appeal can avoid while the State awaits a final pronouncement from the highest court on the important issues in this lawsuit,” Frost wrote.
GOP lawmakers had urged Frost to stay his ruling while they appeal the merits, warning the state faced “fiscal calamity” if the law is no longer enforced. The unions who challenged the suit last week called that “nothing more than baseless speculation.” Still, they had no issue with a stay because without one, the “status of collective bargaining law for state and municipal employees will become muddled and confused during the appeals process for all interested parties.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, praised Frost’s stay.
“A repeal of Act 10 would bankrupt the state government and local governments across Wisconsin,” he said. “Avoiding that outcome while the matter is not fully resolved was a commonsense decision.”
