A Dane County judge on Friday struck down the controversial 2011 collective bargaining law because he said it violates the Wisconsin and U.S. constitutions' guarantees of free speech and freedom of association.
Ruling in a lawsuit brought by Madison Teachers Inc. and a union representing public workers in Milwaukee, Circuit Judge Juan B. Colas said in a 27-page decision that sections of the law "single out and encumber the rights of those employees who choose union membership and representation solely because of that association and therefore infringe upon the rights of free speech and association" guaranteed by the state and federal constitutions.
Colas also ruled that the law violates the constitutional equal protection clause by creating separate classes of state workers who are treated differently and unequally under the law.
The first part is pretty well explained. The second part -- "that the law violates the constitutional equal protection clause by creating separate classes of state workers who are treated differently and unequally under the law" -- would seem to be a miscalculation on Walker's part. He excluded police and firefighters, hoping (unrealistically, it turned out) that he could leave these popular unions out of the firestorm he knew he was going to create. It was a completely political decision.
But in the eyes of the equal protection clause, that distinction is politically convenient nonsense. People have rights regardless of which union they belong to. By trying to play his "divide and conquer" game with public unions, Walker created "special unions" that were exempt from his law. That's not so constitutionally kosher.
