More than two years after it was signed into law, portions of Governor Scott Walker’s signature law that restricts collective bargaining for most public employees is still tied up in court. The same is true for a law that requires voters to show a state-issued photo ID to obtain a ballot, which remains blocked by multiple lawsuits.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says he’s a big believer in the judiciary and the role it plays, but it is frustrating to see the will of the people and the Legislature delayed. Van Hollen says “my biggest concern is not that voter ID, Act 10, all these other cases were brought to court…it’s that they’re taking so long to be resolved.”
The Supreme Court is currently reviewing a challenge that struck down part of Act 10 that apply to local municipal employees and schools workers. Van Hollen believes the state will prevail in that case. The state’s voter ID law, which has been blocked for almost two years, remains tied up in the state and federal court systems by four different lawsuits. Van Hollen expects it will be some time before that issue is resolved, since a case in the Eastern District of Wisconsin has been put on hold until other legal challenges have been resolved.
Van Hollen says he would like to see the challenges to both issues settled soon, hopefully before he leaves office at the end of 2014.