A new Wisconsin judicial ruling demonstrates once again that Republicans are outraged about so-called "takings" of private property only when such takings do not benefit, um, Republicans.
Groping Obnoxious Powermongering (GOP) lawmakers have complained for years of so-called "regulatory takings" laws, which, the argument goes, limit uses of private property to such a degree as to deprive property owners of economically reasonable use and value. Sometimes, the argument goes, that deprivation is so severe the owners end up losing their property, although the law does not formally divest their title to it.
That, in a nutshell, also neatly describes the impact of so-called right-to-work laws on labor unions -- a point made in a Wisconsin court ruling Friday when a Dane County circuit judge struck down the state's right-to-work law passed last year by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed quickly by Republican Gov. Scott Walker. www.jsonline.com/... During his earlier gubernatorial campaign, Walker had reassured voters that he had no such move in mind.
Judge William Foust called the law a violation of the state constitution because it amounts to a seizure of union property -- in other words, what the GOP in other contexts has decried as a taking. The right-to-work law allows all workers in the collective bargaining unit to enjoy union benefits without having to pay member dues or fees in lieu of membership. That, the judge said, strips the labor organizations of important funding sources. He said the law thus effectively constitutes an undue burden on the unions.
The decision came in a lawsuit filed by Madison-area labor unions. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, another Republican, said he would appeal the order, saying: "We are confident the law will be upheld on appeal." Walker agreed.
Their mutual confidence no doubt is due to the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ultra-conservative majority, whose personal copies of the state constitution haven't prevented them from making badly reasoned, inconsistent rulings heretofore.
Rebecca Bradley, David Prosser Jr., Michael Gableman, Pat Roggensack and Annette Ziegler all were elected to the court thanks to millions of dollars in "independent" campaign contributions from right-wing special interest groups like the state’s anti-labor commerce association and out-of-state groups like those funded by the billionaire Koch brothers.
And special interests have since been busy ever since, taking political and monetary value out of the formerly progressive, blueish state.
Joining with those special interest groups, the GOP hates unions and union members, who seek to bargain collectively for better work conditions.
Unions naturally oppose right-to-work laws that force them to carry free-loader employees who get union benefits but who don't pay union dues. Not only do such laws weaken unions, studies show they lower overall wages. But the bigger problem for Republicans is that unions together represent a frequent (but not, as in the case of many public safety unions, unanimous) counterweight to GOP political power.
That was also the reason why Walker earlier enacted the infamous Act 10 law that basically gutted the power of the state's public employee unions, while exempting public safety unions that typically endorse Republicans including Walker. The governor masked the measure's true intent, describing it as a supposedly short-term, budget-balancing move, although it heavily clawed back public employee compensation in ways that are totally open-ended.
And, oh yes, other small thing: The law also gutted union bargaining rights.
On Friday, Judge Foust made a compelling argument that the right-to-work law imposes a financial burden on labor unions that's contrary to the state Constitution. He said over time that burden threatens the "very economic viability" of the unions. Which, pretty clearly, all their BS rhetoric aside, is what Republican strategists in Wisconsin and 24 other states intended.
But more than that, according to the Republican Party's own professed belief in the unfairness of "takings" laws, this defective measure clearly amounts to, well, a Republican takings law. They’re fighting tooth and nail to ensure that they can continue taking whatever they like, not only from labor unions, but workers as a class. Nifty how that works out, isn't it? Don’t watch what we do, listen to what we say.
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