Wisconsin legislators violated public process and it has backfired. “A Wisconsin judge has struck down Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting law because Republican legislators failed to provide sufficient public notice before passing the measure in March”.

This is proof positive that public process does matter and that people based movements can and do make a difference. If they can do it in Wisconsin we can do it in Coos County.

John Nichols of The Nation magazine speaks with Democracy Now

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, it’s quite a big deal, Amy. Judge Maryann Sumi, who’s one of the more respected jurists in the state, was asked to rule on the question of whether the law taking away most collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin workers was passed legally. She determined that it was not passed legally, that the legislature violated the state’s open meetings laws, did not act in a transparent or appropriate manner, and so she’s ruled the law null and void. What this means is that three months into this fight over Governor Walker’s bill, it is completely off the books legally.

That doesn’t mean the fight is over, by any measure. There is a good chance that Republicans in the legislature will try to pass the law again. There will also be appeals. But what this ruling does is reinforce the message that protesters and Democratic legislators have been trying to put forward from the start of this struggle. And that is that the Republicans seem to be so hell-bent on passing this anti-union legislation that they will break any rule, violate any standard. We’ve had a little bit of a restoration of a system of checks and balances in Wisconsin. And frankly, that’s a very big deal.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And John, what about this potential for the legislature to once again pass it? Where are—what’s happening now with the recall attempts and the other political strategies of the movement to defend labor rights?

JOHN NICHOLS: That’s a great question, Juan, and it moves on so many levels. The important thing about the legislature itself is that we have had a lot of indications that Republican legislators are afraid to go forward with passing this again as a standalone bill. Their fear is rooted in something that the majority leader of the State Senate, Scott Fitzgerald, said, and that is that they believe if they bring it up again, they will have 70,000, 100,000, maybe even more, protesters surrounding the Capitol. So these people-based movements really have influenced the process. They have made at least some of the Republicans a little frightened to go ahead. That doesn’t mean they won’t do so, but it does mean that if they try, they’ll probably do it in a sneaky way, perhaps trying to insert it into the state budget. Even that will provoke mass protest.

And it will all come in the context of a fight over recall. Right now, we have three recalls against Republican state senators that have been certified. They will go forward, probably to be held in July. Additionally, there are three more recalls of Republican senators that are likely to be certified in the next week. They may also occur in July. And there may be a couple efforts to take down Democratic senators.

The appointment of Fred Messerle was marred from the beginning and it remains to be seen if the public deliberation performed by commissioners Main and Parry on May 17 is sufficient to overturn that decision. More than likely, without a mass public revolt, we are stuck with Messerle until the next general election but OGEC may determine there is cause to redo the process even if the results are the same.

For those who worked so hard to bring changes to the county commission it is very discouraging to see more of the same now sitting on the board.