Here & Now

Appeals Court Upholds Act 10

Scott Walker:

We're turning things around, we're heading in the right direction. We're moving Wisconsin forward.

Zac Schultz:

Governor Scott Walker presents his vision for Wisconsin during his third State of the State address. Good evening, I’m Zac Schultz, filling in for Frederica Freyberg. More on the State of the State speech in a moment.

But first, an update on court challenges to Act 10, the governor's collective bargaining legislation. This afternoon a federal appeals court upheld that legislation in its entirety. A district court judge had previously ruled that two provisions of the law were unconstitutional. Today's seventh court decision reads, The district court invalidated Act 10’s recertification and payroll deduction provisions, but upheld the statute's limitation on collective bargaining. We now uphold Act 10 in its entirety. In a statement, Governor Scott Walker calls the decision, a victory for Wisconsin taxpayers. The state teacher’s union executive director, Mary Bell, said, Wisconsin educators are extremely disappointed with the ruling. A separate Dane County court decision that struck down parts of the collective bargaining law is not affected by today's action. That decision remains on appeal.