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The Wisconsin state Supreme Court smacked the liberal activist judge who tried to dictate policy to the other two branches of state government. The state Supreme court ruled that Judge Maryann Sumi never had the right to stick her nose into state legislative business when she invalidated Wisconsin’s law which would restrict the collective bargaining “rights” of public service employees. The court waxed quite eloquent in it’s public flogging of the activist judge: "The court ruled that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi’s ruling, which had held up implementation of the collective bargaining law, was in the void ab initio,...

Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers.

Breaking! The bill stands.

How could Wisconsin Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi do otherwise than strike down Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining bill? Her son, remember, was a former field manager for both the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. Of course, Sumi promised her son’s prior affiliations wouldn’t affect her in any way. “My kids are adults, they are independent and they lead their own lives. I do not consult my family about my decisions,” she said in a statement in March, after conservative bloggers at Big Government and elsewhere first called the conflict to light. Maybe Sumi wasn’t biased against...

Madison - A Dane County judge has struck down Gov. Scott Walker's legislation repealing most collective bargaining for public employees. In a 33-page decision issued Thursday, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said she would freeze the legislation because GOP lawmakers on a committee broke the state's open meetings law in passing it March 9. The legislation limits collective bargaining to wages for all public employees in Wisconsin except for police and firefighters. "It's what we were looking for," said Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat. Ozanne sued to block the law after Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca...

A Wisconsin judge has struck down a law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most state workers. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled Thursday that Republican legislators violated Wisconsin's open meetings law during the run up to passage. She says that renders the law void.

MADISON, Wis. -- The state Supreme Court has asked attorneys for reasons why it should take up a lawsuit challenging Gov. Scott Walker's divisive collective bargaining plan. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne has filed a lawsuit alleging Republican legislators violated Wisconsin's open meetings law during debate on the plan before Walker signed it into law in March. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi has blocked the law from taking effect while she considers the lawsuit. Sumi is expected to make a decision on the case after May 23. The state Justice Department last month asked the Supreme Court...

In her ruling, Sumi distinguished between the county’s lawsuit and another lawsuit brought by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne alleging legislators’ passage of the measure violated the state’s open meetings law. That lawsuit is also pending before Sumi. “The answers are straightforward: the district attorney has explicit statutory authority to enforce the open meetings law; Dane County does not,” Sumi wrote. She added that state statutes grant circuit courts authority to void actions taken in violation of the open meetings law and to issue injunctions but does not give the court the authority to declare state laws unconstitutional.

Madison — Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit over a controversial plan to limit collective bargaining for public employees. Sumi's order dismissed the suit by Dane County, Acting Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Dane County Board Chairman Scott McDonnell. Falk and McDonnell were dismissed in their official capacities, but may be able to continue the suit as private citizens. The case is one of three against the collective bargaining measure. Sumi has blocked the law from being implemented in one of the other cases. Sumi found that Dane County, as an arm of...

A judge in Madison, Wis., on Thursday ruled a controversial law severely limiting the collective bargaining powers of public employee unions in the state was not in effect. Following a court hearing on March 29, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued a declaration on Thursday morning stating that the state officials had not followed correct procedures when they published the law "and is therefore not in effect."

RPDC Apologizes To Judge Sumi The Republican Party of Dane County sent out a press release on March 29th criticizing Judge Maryann Sumi for holding up the publication of Governor Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reform bill. Upon further reflection we’d like to apologize for not understanding her point of view. Sure, Governor Walker’s bill is unquestionably constitutional, increases worker’s rights and helps local government balance budgets without having to fire public workers. The Wisconsin state legislature consulted with their non-partisan parliamentarian to make sure that the passage of the bill followed the rules of the Senate and Assembly. But this...

Two city of Madison labor unions and Dane County dropped their request to consolidate their complaints over the guv's collective bargaining law after being told doing so would allow the state to seek a new judge. Dane County and two city of Madison labor unions, AFL-CIO Local 236 and Firefighters Local 311, sought to consolidate their separate complaints over the act. Attorneys for the plaintiffs asked the state to agree not to seek a substitution of judges before moving forward. But Judge Maryann Sumi said the defendants did not have to bind themselves to that commitment. The motion was then...

Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi issued an order this afternoon blocking further implementation of the collective bargaining bill. Sumi stopped short of signing off on a proposed declaration that publication by the Legislative Reference Bureau does not make the law take effect. But she made clear during her ruling that "further implementation of the act is enjoined." The judge reiterated that lawmakers could easily implement the law through another, properly noticed committee hearing and legislative vote, commenting that "when taxpayers are paying the bill, that needs to be part of the discussion" of continuing litigation. Sumi also warned that those...

Having taken a closer look at the text of Judge Sumi's decision in Ozanne v. Fitzgerald, I am quite frankly astonished. The court seems to have managed to enjoin publication of the statutory changes in the budget repair bill without addressing any of the difficult issues that the case presents. First, there is an issue as to whether the case is even ripe for decision. In Goodland v. Zimmerman, 243 Wis. 459, 10 N.W.2d 180 (1943), the Supreme Court held that judges may not enjoin the publication of a law on the basis that it is or might be unconstitutional....

More on County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi & SonBloggers use son to attack judge in union bargaining case By Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel March 21, 2011 11:31 a.m. Madison -- In a sign of how contentious the struggle over Gov. Scott Walker’s union bargaining law remains, conservative bloggers are using a Dane County judge’s son to criticize her ruling against the measure. **SNIP** But conservative blogs have been noting that Sumi’s son, Jacob Sinderbrand, worked in the past for labor unions and questioning whether that could in some way influence Sumi’s judgment. In a brief statement, Sumi dismissed...

Excerpting for copyright concerns... Article contains the usual "intentional misunderstandings:" The Wisconsin law "strips many public employees of their voice on the job"Republicans "rushed the bill through," even though the Democrats walked out on February 17th and the bill was passed on March 11, an interval of 22 days The article claims that a "massive rally" was held "over the weekend." Here's a video of the "massive" rally; it looks to me like maybe two or three thousand people showed up, although it's hard to tell because the camera is at ground level. The article asserts that "state and many...

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Wisconsin Judge Maryann Sumi & Her (SEIU, AFL-CIO) Political Operative SonThere's nothing like a judge's love for her son to cloud her otherwise-cloudy judgement. Posted by LaborUnionReport Monday, March 21st at 12:30AM EDT On Friday, unions scored a temporary victory to maintain their ability to collect union dues from Wisconsin public employees when Judge Maryann Sumi (the same judge who refused to order striking teachers back to work in February) issued a Temporary Restraining Order preventing the implementation of Wisconsin’s new law governing public-sector unions. Via the Wall Street Journal: Judge Maryann Sumi said a lawsuit filed by the Dane...

Madison -- Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.