Wisconsin’s right-to-work law was reinstated Tuesday after an appeals court ruled that a lower court had erred in striking it down. The law’s fate remains uncertain as the state Supreme Court is expected to eventually rule on its constitutionality.
“We feel confident the law will ultimately be found constitutional, as it has been in more than half the states across the country,” said Johnny Koremenos, spokesman for state Attorney General Brad Schimel, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The law, signed last year by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, prohibits workers from being forced to join or otherwise financially support a union as a condition of employment. Labor groups despise the laws, which are associated with membership declines and depleted treasuries. Wisconsin was the 25th state to adopt such a law.
Badger State unions have challenged the law’s constitutionality. In April, a Dane Country Circuit Court agreed, striking it down and keeping the state from enforcing the law pending an appeal.
On Tuesday, Lisa K. Stark, presiding judge for the District Court of Appeals in Wausau, ruled that the Dane County Court went too far in enjoining the state from enforcing the law and issued a stay.
“Given the relative lack of harm shown to either party of the public interest, the presumption of constitutionality of this duly enacted statute and the preference under the law to maintain the status quo to avoid confusion, we conclude that the state has established there is sufficient likelihood of success on appeal to warrant the grant of the stay,” the ruling said.
The state Supreme Court has a Republican-appointed majority and is widely expected to affirm the law’s constitutionality. States have been allowed since 1947 to pass such laws on the grounds that it is unfair to coerce workers into supporting unions if they do not wish to join.
The Wisconsin law was challenged by state branches of the United Steel Workers, the International Association of Machinists and the AFL-CIO labor federation on the grounds that it amounted to an unfair taking of the unions’ money under the Fifth Amendment. They argue that since unions are in most cases required to represent all workers in collective bargaining, they have a right to force workers to pay them.
It is a novel challenge that flies in the face of nearly six decades of legal precedent. However, it has only been in the last few years that states with strong labor movements such as Wisconsin have adopted the laws, prompting unions to scour the books for ways to challenge them. Unions are hoping that this argument, which has never been addressed by the Supreme Court, will undermine the laws.
