"David Prosser, whose recent reelection to the state's high court had been hotly contested by opponents of the union measure," reports Reuters, "wrote in his eight-page concurrence that GOP legislators had good reason to rush things they way they did, given the ugly mood of protesters at the Capitol."
The three in dissent blasted the order to overrule the lower court, saying it was "based on errors of fact and law."They inappropriately use this court's original jurisdiction, make their own findings of fact, mischaracterize the parties' arguments, misinterpret statutes, minimize (if not eliminate) Wisconsin's constitutional guarantees, and misstate case law, appearing to silently overrule case law dating back to at least 1891," the three said.
"It is long on rhetoric and long on story-telling that appears to have a partisan slant," Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson wrote of Justice Prosser's opinion, as noted by the New York Times. "This kind of order seems to open the court unnecessarily to the charge that the majority has reached a pre-determined conclusion not based on the facts and the law, which undermines the majority's ultimate decision," she wrote.
Though the law will take affect immediately, it is likely to be challenged in court again for different reasons.
Nonetheless, Firedoglake's David Dayen spared no ire for the court's decision today, which he described as "a total abdication by the branch designed to settle disputes of this nature."
"What we have here is a court saying 'If the Legislature does it, then it's not illegal,' he wrote, before concluding in despair:
So the fix is in. It shows you why that state Supreme Court election, which resulted in a narrow victory for Republican David Prosser, was so important. The Wisconsin Supreme Court looks to be a complement to Scott Walker and his agenda, a backstop for whatever actions they choose to take.Certainly this could add fuel to the [upcoming recall elections of 6 Republican and 3 Democratic state Senators]. But public employees have lost most of their collective bargaining rights, and unions will wither in the state as a result. Scott Walker may lose a few battles, but he's won the war.
As readers of The BRAD BLOG likely know, we covered the dubious results and subsequent disastrous "recount" of the incredibly close April 5th state Supreme Court election between Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg in tremendous detail over the past several months, even as the "cascade of widespread irregularities" and failures of the state's e-voting system were largely ignored by the entirety of the mainstream media.
Kloppenburg conceded the race on May 31, despite thousands of votes found to have been originally mis-tallied, far more discovered in "wide open" or ripped, unsealed, duct-taped and otherwise defective ballot bags and poll tapes after a "recount" where hundreds of official, on-the-record objections and evidentiary exhibits were never reviewed by the state election authority before they certified the results of the contest as "correct".
The victory for the incumbent Prosser to a new 10-year term assured the 4 to 3 balance in favor of the Republican agenda in Wisconsin on the state's Supreme Court, even when that agenda includes the legislative removal of rights from citizens -- the same thing that Republicans pretend to be against when it comes to things like the federal "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" passed last year by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
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