Well, the WI Supreme Court started hearing arguments as to whether or not it should take on the collective bargaining atrocity of Walker and his pals. And, if they do, hmmmm, which way would they rule?
Not surprisingly,the four conservatives on the bench banded together during the hearing (to be fair, as did the other three justices). But, surprisingly to me, it doesn't appear they were challenging how the bill was advanced in an illegal meeting, but rather they were challenging Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi's order blocking implementation of the bill as law. Conservative Justice Michael Gableman asked, during what the Journal Sentinel called "aggressive" questioning, if a judge can stop a law from being published, could a judge stop a senator from even introducing a bill?
That just sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Wasn't this about the legality of the bill's creation and passage in a violation of the open meetings law? If the meeting wasn't legal, would anything else matter?
Walker's Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John actually did address the issue of the open meetings law by basically saying the open meetings law doesn't apply to the Legislature, which was echoed by conservative Justice Patience Roggensack's comments. St. John went on to mention that the Legislature has the right to lock doors, and that even letting in one member of the public would satisfy open meetings requirements.
Either way this falls, it's a scary thing--the Court agreeing with this, or the Legislators in power actually believing what they say about open meetings. Attorney Lester Pines, who is representing State Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Madison) says, “I don’t hold the view that the court makes its decisions solely based on ideology.”
I wouldn't bet on it.
And, at this juncture, I'm not sure it would even matter.
It is scary if the basic premise of free government, the elected branch's power to make laws, can be "enjoined" by the unelected branch or by the dead hand of an old legislature. Even more so on this absurd claim that the legislature "secretly" passed this law, when nothing else was in the news!
ReplyDeleteWhy should the legislature be exempt from abiding by the Open Meetings law? The *legislative* branch of government should follow the law just as all other governmental bodies in the state — school boards, town boards, village boards, city councils. Oh, that's right. Forgive me. The Republicans are ABOVE the law. They do whatever they feel like and who cares if they are breaking a law or violating a judge's order. . .
ReplyDeletehello thanks you for the helpful information
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