Appeal certain:
A Dane County judge late Friday struck down Wisconsin’s controversial 2011 collective bargaining law because he said it violates the state and U.S. constitutional guarantees of free speech and freedom of association.
Ruling in a lawsuit brought by Madison Teachers Inc. and a union representing public workers in Milwaukee, Circuit Judge Juan B. Colas said in a 27-page decision that sections of the law “single out and encumber the rights of those employees who choose union membership and representation solely because of that association and therefore infringe upon the rights of free speech and association.”
Colas also said that the law violates the constitutional equal protection clause by creating separate classes of state workers who are treated differently and unequally under the law.