So Sumi sez so!

I wish the Judge would have been pissed off enough to hold Gov. Scott Walker & his toady Jeff Fitzgerald in contempt of court.  But the Wisconsin Judge, who ordered the halt the back door legislation to strip Union workers of bargaining rights, was none too happy.

As reported by USA Today:

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi chastised state officials yesterday for ignoring her earlier order to halt the law’s publication.

“Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of” the law “was enjoined,” Sumi said during a hearing. “That is what I now want to make crystal-clear.”

Republican lawmakers pushed the law through the Legislature earlier this month despite massive protests that drew up to 85,000 people to the state capitol. After diffusing a Democratic filibuster in the Assembly, Republicans used a parliamentary procedure in the Senate to circumvent a Democratic boycott meant to prevent a vote.

Walker signed the bill March 11, triggering a number of lawsuits from opponents. Sumi issued a temporary restraining order blocking Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the bill — typically the last step before a law takes effect.

Republicans got around that by having the Legislative Reference Bureau, another state agency, publish the bill Friday. They declared victory, saying the law went into effect Saturday.

Sumi’s order yesterday told state officials to stand down from any further action to put the law into effect. This time, she warned that anyone who defied it would face sanctions. She did not say what those sanctions might be.

Attorneys for the Department of Justice, which is representing the Republicans, contend the case means nothing because legislators are immune from lawsuits and Sumi has no authority to intervene in the legislative process.

“Her action today again flies in the face of the separation of powers between the three branches of government,” Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a statement."

So~ according to Wisconsin legislators, separation of powers means they can ignore the law!

It does not take a psychic to predict Scott Walker's future..... I see a recall in his future. 

It would be interesting to see Walker & Fitzgerald in jail for contempt. 

Daily Finance reports:

Gov. Scott Walker and his allies in the Republican-controlled Legislature believe they are on solid legal ground as they push forth on a course that could deepen an already toxic crisis in the state's government.

Sidestepping Democratic state senators who played hooky to block the law's passage may have angered political opponents, but defying a judge's orders — however imprecise — could put GOP lawmakers and state officials at risk of being found in contempt and could lend weight to accusations the Republicans consider themselves above the law.

"It's dangerous. Arguably they're in contempt of court already," University of Wisconsin law professor Howard Schweber said Wednesday, referring to preparations under way by Walker's administration to begin deducting more money from most public employees' paychecks for health and pension plan costs and to stop deducting union dues.

The deductions, which would amount to an average 8 percent pay cut, would be reflected in the workers' April 21 paychecks, Walker's top aide said Monday.

The Republicans argue the law, which also would strip most public workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, took effect last weekend because a state office posted it online. Typically, a law takes effect in Wisconsin the day after it's published in the state's official newspaper upon the order of the secretary of state. But Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ordered the secretary of state not to have it published until she could hear arguments in one of several lawsuits challenging the law.

I cannot understand the legal rationale of attorneys who are apparently advising this administration to ignore this order for whatever reason," Democratic Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco said Wednesday. "The very fabric of a just society is based on the rule of law. We don't have the option of which law we will obey and we don't have the option of which court order we'll ignore."

The Republicans are walking a political fine line by moving ahead as if the law is in effect while apparently defying the court, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.

"They naturally want to continue to support their side of the argument, but I think they run the risk of making this look like a claim to being able to do whatever they want regardless," Franklin said. "At some point strength starts to look like arrogance."