Saturday, April 09, 2016

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

It's a ritual for the government in Wisconsin in the era of Scott Walker. Pass a law, have a Dane County judge declare it unconstitutional:
MADISON -- A Dane County judge struck down Wisconsin's right-to-work law Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported.

The controversial law, championed by Governor Scott Walker, was enacted just over a year ago , in March of 2015.

Attorney General Brad Schimel has already said he will file an appeal on the judge's ruling.
We've seen this before. Act 10, which defanged public employee unions in Wisconsin and caused the spasms of protest that engulfed the state in 2011, got a similar treatment from a judge in Dane County. On appeal, the ruling was overturned. It will happen again in this case.

The point of these suits isn't to win the case. It's to win the headlines. A representative screenshot from ABC News:

A "Court" did this? Wow, this really must mean something!

And the Gray Lady agrees:

All The News That's Fit To Print, even when it's not really news
It gets old, but it's a useful reminder of the importance of eternal vigilance. The Left never stops coming. Nothing is ever settled.

7 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

"Nothing is ever settled."

Sure it is. When they win.

Mr. D said...

Sure it is. When they win.

Right. Hence the eternal vigilance.

Bike Bubba said...

OK, if union members are property, wouldn't we conclude that Wisconsin's former closed shop law violates the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? And by the logic of the court, if I get "taken" and sell my car or house for less than it should have sold for, or I accept a lower wage than I should earn, I can find a remedy in court.

There is a certain point where I think we have to point out that this goes well beyond mere political differences, and judges who pursue such asinine logic need not only to be overturned, but disbarred.

Mr. D said...

There is a certain point where I think we have to point out that this goes well beyond mere political differences, and judges who pursue such asinine logic need not only to be overturned, but disbarred.

The judge in this case is a Dane County judge who is nearing retirement. He knows he's going to get overturned and so he doesn't particularly care about anything other than throwing his buddies a bone. If Walker's allies wanted to play this game, they could easily find a judge in Waukesha County who could rule something the Left holds dear is unconstitutional. But Republicans don't typically play this game. Maybe they should.

Bike Bubba said...

The judge in this case is a Dane County judge who is nearing retirement. He knows he's going to get overturned and so he doesn't particularly care about anything other than throwing his buddies a bone. If Walker's allies wanted to play this game, they could easily find a judge in Waukesha County who could rule something the Left holds dear is unconstitutional. But Republicans don't typically play this game. Maybe they should.

I don't know that I would want to play tit for tat, but if you could (unlikely) prove that this was true about any judge, liberal or conservative--that he just wanted to throw a bone to his buddies--that would be enough for me to support disbarment. We have way too many lawyers out there who are acting as if it's all a game. It's why we tell lawyer jokes, no?

Mr. D said...

You can't get a guy like this disbarred, Bubba. The bar association would agree with him. You just take it to the appellate court, and if necessary, the state supreme court. He'll get overturned and that will be the end of it.

Bike Bubba said...

You may be right, and it says a lot of things about the legal profession today--none of them printable in a family newspaper or weblog.