The day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling that the adoption of the budget repair bill was invalid, nearly all of the unions representing public employees in Wisconsin combined forces to file a 29-page complaint challenging the bill on constitutional grounds.
The lawsuit focuses on the Budget Repair Bill's differing treatment of:
1) Law enforcement officers that are represented by unions that supported Walker's gubanatorial campaign;
2) Law enforcement officers that are represented by unions that did not support Walker's gubanatorial campaign;
3) All other public sector workers represented by unions.
Employees in the first category retain most collective bargaining rights and potentially better pension and health insurance benefits. Employees in the second and third categories lose most collective bargaining rights and will likely have higher pension and health insurance costs. The lawsuit alleges that this violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United State Constitution, which is contained in the 14th Amendment.
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that:
"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Laws make distinctions among different types of people regularly (only the elderly qualify for medicare, only those under 21 are punished for drinking alcohol), but where people are similary situated, a government must have a rational basis for treating classes of people differently. The complaint filed today argues that not only is there no rational basis for taking collective bargaining rights away from some public employees and not others, but that the basis is the impermissible one of granting political favors.
The lawsuit also alleges violations of the First Amendment. The Budget Repair Bill prohibits unions from collecting union dues from the paychecks of public employees in the second and third categories, even with the employees' consent. The lawsuit alleges that that these restrictions amount to an infringement of speech, because unions are deprived of the financial resources necessary to engage in political speech activities on behalf of their members.
The link to the complaint is below. The suit was filed in federal court in Madison, and the plaintiffs have requested an injunction.
http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/June11/0615/0615weacvstate.pdf
