Oral Arguments Over Act 10 Lawsuit in Dane County Court

Frederica Freyberg:
A lawsuit once again challenging Wisconsin’s decade old Act 10 law heard oral arguments this week in a Dane County court. The suit is brought by multiple unions and individuals representing public employees, who argue they have been adversely affected by Act 10. Act 10 or the budget repair bill was signed into law in 2011 by then Republican Governor Scott Walker, prompting weeks of protests that drew as many as 100,000 people to the Capitol. The law prohibits general public employees from collective bargaining but exempts public safety employees like police and firefighters. The distinctions between these two groups and how they’re applied is the basis of the lawsuit.

Jacob Karabell:
There are simply not substantial distinctions that make the class of general employees, as defined in Act 10, different from the class of public safety employees. There’s no substantial distinction, for example, between on the one hand, the Capitol Police, the UW Police and conservation wardens, all of whom are law enforcement officials with arrest authority who are deemed general employees.

Misha Tseytlin:
The substantial distinction between the classifications here, I think that this court can acquire to that, but cannot under rational basis with respect, get into some of the minutia that my friends have attempted to interject this court into.