Judge voids controversial Wisconsin union law

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - A Wisconsin judge on Thursday voided a controversial Republican-backed law restricting the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions.

Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi said Republican lawmakers violated the state's open meetings law in rushing the legislation through during massive protests at the state Capitol earlier this year.

The Wisconsin proposal, championed by Republican Governor Scott Walker, eliminates most collective bargaining rights for public sector unions and requires them to pay more for pensions and health coverage.

The law has been on hold pending the legal challenge. Now that Sumi has ruled, the state's Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue. Although the Supreme Court judges pledge to be independent, a veteran judge backed by Republicans was just narrowly reelected to a state Supreme Court, giving Republican-leaning judges a majority on the court.

Mike Tate, chairman of the state's Democratic Party which opposed the measure, hailed the ruling and said: "It should be looked at as an opportunity to work together to find common sense solutions to grow our economy and get our fiscal house in order, not to tear our state apart."

Sumi, who was appointed by former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, ruled that the evidence was "clear and convincing" that Republicans failed to comply with the law in a hastily called meeting in March to push through legislation containing the collective bargaining changes.

"The legislators were understandably frustrated by the stalemate existing on March 9, but that does not justify jettisoning compliance with the open meetings law in an attempt to move the budget repair bill to final action," Sumi wrote.

"Moreover, if there is any doubt as to the committee's awareness of its violation, one need only read the short transcript of the committee's March 9 proceedings."

Sumi said the legislators had the opportunity to correct their violation without admitting error, but failed to do so.

Walker's office declined to comment on the ruling on Thursday, insisting "it didn't involve us" because the ruling was concerning an action by the legislature.

But the anti-union measure at the center of the controversy has been the hallmark of Walker's first five months in office -- and was one of the first items on his agenda when he called the legislature into special session after his swearing in.

Walker defended the new rules for unions as a needed fiscal reform to help the state close a budget deficit.

Critics saw the bill, which also eliminates automatic deduction of union dues, as a Republican attack on long-held rights to collective bargaining and on the main source of political funding for the Democratic Party.

As the state legislature debated the measure in late February and early March it triggered huge protests outside the state Capitol that on one occasion attracted nearly 100,000 demonstrators -- most opposed to the measure.

Fourteen Democratic state senators fled to Illinois in an effort to deny Republicans the quorum they needed to pass the measure in that chamber.

The lawsuit on which Sumi ruled on Thursday essentially challenged the legislative maneuver the Republicans used to pass the anti-union measure without the 14 Democrats in the chamber.

Scott Fitzgerald, the top Republican in the Senate who orchestrated the passage of the measure there, blasted Sumi's ruling on Thursday, characterizing it as a "separation-of-powers issue: whether one Madison judge can stand in the way of the other two democratically-elected branches of government."

The dispute over the measure has sharply divided Wisconsin, a state that is fairly evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and spawned attempts to recall some legislators on both sides of the issue.

Recall petitions have been filed against six Republicans and three Democrats and special elections are expected to be held on July 12.