Adding to the confusion around its publication Friday, the state’s Department of Justice said Monday morning the budget repair bill is in fact law and asked that the current court cases be dismissed, prompting a critical response from the Dane County district attorney later in the evening.
The DOJ said Monday in a statement Gov. Scott Walker’s bill requiring public employees to contribute more to pensions and health care as well as cut back on their collective bargaining authority became law after the Legislative Reference Bureau published it online Friday evening.
“The Legislative Reference Bureau’s publication satisfies the constitutional requirement that laws are to be published before they are to be in force,” the DOJ said in a statement. “Because [the budget repair bill] has been published, the legislative process is complete.”
Since the bill has now become law according to the DOJ, the agency argues a Dane County Circuit Court judge’s temporary restraining order placed on Secretary of State Douglas La Follette prohibiting him from publishing the bill should be removed.
The DOJ’s statement aligns the agency with the Department of Administration and Republican leadership’s belief that the bill became law once published by the LRB and have said they would begin the process of implementing the bill.
Later Monday evening, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who requested a temporary restraining order be placed on the secretary of state from publishing the law, filed a brief with the Circuit Court describing his objections to the DOJ’s opinion.
Ozanne is seeking declarations from the court that the LRB’s publication does not mean the bill became law and the temporary restraining order is not moot. In addition, Ozanne would like the court to find the LRB was subject to the terms under the temporary restraining order despite not being listed as a defendant in the case.
The Circuit Court is scheduled to hear the case Tuesday morning.
Legal experts from in and outside the Capitol building have weighed in since Friday’s publication, with a majority concluding the LRB’s actions did not move the bill into law, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said.
LRB Chief Steve Miller said the bureau published the bill in accordance with statutes requiring it to do so within 10 days of signature by the governor. But the LRB’s actions did not supersede the authority to effectuate a law belonging solely to the secretary of state, according to correspondence between Barca and LRB staff attorney Scott Grosz.
University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden said the DOJ’s opinion filed Monday will not have much impact and points to how partisan divides have extended beyond the Legislature.
“To me, it doesn’t have a ton of merit at this point,” Burden said. “It’s really one party against the other, so folks in the Walker Administration and leadership of the Legislature and in Van Hollen’s offices who are all Republicans would like to believe the LRB’s publication makes this law and end all the legal challenges.”
He said the officials in the Dane County executive and La Follette’s offices have a better case, according to his own reading of the related Wisconsin statutes.
