June 14, 2011 (Wisconsin State Journal) -- A Dane County judge overstepped her authority when she voided Gov. Scott Walker's measure limiting public sector collective bargaining, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a fractious 4-3 decision.
In a nine-page decision -- followed by about 60 pages of concurring and dissenting opinions -- the court's conservative majority said Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi "usurped the legislative power which the Wisconsin constitution grants exclusively to the Legislature" when she voided the law.
Sumi ruled that a legislative conference committee violated the state's open meetings law when it hastily met in March to amend the bill, allowing the Republican-controlled Senate to get around a boycott by Senate Democrats.
But in a stinging dissent, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson wrote that the authors of the court's order -- Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman, along with concurring Justice David Prosser -- lacked "a reasoned, transparent analysis" and incorporate "numerous errors of law and fact."
READ MORE: Wisconsin State Journal