Yikes. Scott Walker got what he wanted. His original union stripping bill is on its way to being law. No unions (unless annually certified by a vote of the majority of its members) and labor contracts limited to wages within the cost of living only for every single public employee in Wisconsin except police, firefighters, and State Troopers. Sigh.
The court expedited hearing the case against union stripping. Read more here.
The majority opinion was by Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler
Not a good day for Wisconsin or its workers.
I'll post more when I get more details.
Update #1: The vote occurred on party lines (4 right wingers voting approval). This was the reason it was so important to defeat David Prosser in the last election. They found no problem with the special committee meeting with less than 2 hours of notice despite the Open Meetings Law requiring a full 24 hour notice.
Republicans who dominate in the Wisconsin State Legislature were positioning union stripping to be included as part of the state budget, leading to an increase in Madison protests in addition to the budget protests that are expressed in the Walkerville Tent City. With the Supreme Court ruling, this will be unnecessary now.
Further updates as I get more information.
Update #2: H/T Adam B who found the link to the decision. Thanks.
Update #3: Another link. This is a developing story. More updates coming.
Update #4: I've updated the body of the diary. It was really thin when I first put it up.
Update #5: Express your thoughts in the Journal Sentinal poll. The wingnuts are already in the majority.
Update #6: Another link. Chanting begins again in the rotunda.
Update #7: Rally scheduled tomorrow. Thursday. More info on the rally. The Rally is being called
The People vs. Scott Walker
Update #8: The big rally will be held Thursday. People will still be gathering daily around the Capitol, particularly for the Walkerville Tent City protest.
Update #9: Just updated the title (it's not breaking news anymore)and adding a comment:
Nice coverage on Ed's Show on MSNBC tonight. He used the first half hour to cover this issue and its importance.
I know everyone is mad - I am too, but let's keep this in perspective. We pretty much knew this would happen when Kathy Nichlaus pulled several thousand votes out of her hat in RW Waukesha County which gave the Supreme Court election to Prosser. Our hope was to defeat Prosser and make the court rational again. It's still 4/3 rightwing.
There are 2 more court challenges and I know people are looking at other strategies to bag this trash of a bill.
We must put all our efforts into the upcoming recall elections. It will take only 3 Republicans to lose and all our Democrats to prevail to give Dems a majority. That would end the nutbag Republican agenda from moving through our legislature.
Scott Walker is next. We'll make him a Quarter Term Governor and national laughingstock by electing a good Democratic Governor.
Following that, we make sure we have a Democratic majority in the Assembly in 2012.
Then, we start undoing the damage to our state and it's reputation.
Sure, hard work and a long slog. That's OK - we're workers and retirees and used to working hard. We're together on this and for the first time ever there is unity between the community organizations, farmers, unions, and progressive groups. Republican fear this! It's why they rammed through the Voter Supression Bill before the Recall Elections. It's why they greased the skids to slide through some of the most horrendous legislation and budgets I've ever seen. They know that the people are awake and not happy with what they are seeing.
We recalled 6 of 8 Republican State Senators - something no one thought we could do. We nearly won a State Supreme Court election bringing an unknown candidate with a 35 point disadvantage within a hairs breadth of victory. We've exposed the Koch/ALEC connection to the Republicans and Walker. We've seen Republican poll numbers tank.
Don't give up. Don't let disappointment take you down. Channel that into the actions that are needed.
They have won a battle. We must win the war.