Wisconsin: Lefty Judge Juan Colas Makes Mischief on Behalf of Public Sector Unions, Nullifies Law Eliminating Their Collective Bargaining Rights

One Judge Overturns the Wishes of the Voters in Wisconsin
By Gary DeMar
September 18, 2012
Last Resistance

When we elect a president, we also elect judges, bureaucrats (who stay long after a president’s term/terms of office), laws he gets passed, and executive orders. Consider what just happened in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin was a battleground that put public sector union workers in a bargaining position that allowed the unions to use the power of government to line their pockets and those of their members.

This sweetheart relationship was bankrupting the state. Republican Governor Scott Walker decided to take on the unions. Te governor and the Republicans won. The union thugs were angry can called for recall elections. Gov. Walker and most of the Republicans who were up for the recall won. The electoral process worked. The people elected to office made the laws that they were put in office to implement.

The state budget was saved.

Now we learn that a single judged has thrown out the entire process. “A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.” While the judge was not a federal appointee, there is a lesson here. Judges can overrule the will of the people and elected representatives.

It’s no wonder the American people are fed up with the judicial process and believe there political activism doesn’t mean a thing. Why bother to vote if some judge can overrule the majority of voters in a state.

It happened in California when a majority of people voted to outlaw same-sex marriage. A single judge nullified the law that more than 7 million people voted to uphold. Consider this argument from Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was appointed to the court by former President Jimmy Carter. (Yes, elections do matter.):

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.”

In a similar act of judicial tyranny, Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void.

“In his 27-page ruling, the judge said 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 guaranteed by both the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions.”

If a person chooses union membership, and public sector unions are not permitted collective bargaining rights, then how does this “single out and encumber” their rights? No one is forcing anyone to work for the government. Consider these comments that President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Luther C. Steward, President of the National Federation of Federal Employees in a letter dated August 16, 1937:

“Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.”

Public sector unions are “bargaining” with an entity that does not have any money. The money comes from tax payers. In order to secure the votes of the unions, the unions [N.S.: I think he meant to say “politicians,” not “unions,” here] promise the unions collective bargaining rights. The unions in turn vote for candidates who always support the unions. It’s a sweet deal.

Governor Walker put an end to it and as a result the state is on better fiscal ground. One judge is about to overturn it all.