Yesterday, in a previous post, I was highly annoyed at Scott Fitzgerald… again. You see, there had been a restraining order granted by a judge that blocked publication of Wisconsin’s terrible collective bargaining law. That meant means the law wasn’t supposed to go into effect until it was litigated.

But Fitzgerald didn’t care about that:

Madison - A controversial bill limiting collective bargaining for public workers has been officially published despite a temporary restraining order barring its publication.

A lot of us ranted and raved about his brazen disregard for the judge’s order. However, after having read the “Illusory Tenant”, it appears that Fitz, who clearly is of very little brain, confused “printing” with “publishing”:

Senator’s bold move constructively no different than visiting Kinko’s [...]

“Publish” and “publication” are legal terms of art referring here to a step in the legislative process immediately preceding enforceability. [...]

But I suspect “publish” doesn’t mean publish in the sense that the Secretary of State is enjoined from doing, but rather publishing as in printing onto paper, as §35.095 resides in a subchapter of the statutes entitled, “LEGISLATIVE; CLASS 1 PRINTING.” Therefore it’s reasonable to wonder whether Fitzgerald is trying to pull a fast one (it’s also reasonable to wonder that just because it’s Fitzgerald).

There Posturing Fitz goes again, confirming what we already know about his sleaziness.

Please read the whole thing, it’s well worth it.

Added: Sequel here.

H/t: Charles Brace

If you recall, there was a restraining order granted by a judge that blocked publication of Wisconsin’s terrible collective bargaining law.That meant means the law wasn’t supposed to go into effect until it was litigated.

But that didn’t stop the Walker the WonderWank, Inc. It’s being enacted, regardless:

Madison - A controversial bill limiting collective bargaining for public workers has been officially published despite a temporary restraining order barring its publication.

The legislation was published Friday with a footnote that notes the restraining order, but says the law “requires the Legislative Reference Bureau to publish every act within 10 working days after its date of enactment.”

The publication of the law means that it will take effect Saturday.

Here it is, in black and white. More like black and blue.

More details here, at JSOnline.

UPDATE: According to Jon Erpenbach, they are still trying to determine legalities. (H/t: Naomi Houser). On his Facebook page, he posted the following:

Fitzgerald ordered LRB [Legislative Reference Bureau] to publish the law. It’s unclear if that does in fact make it law. LRB is unclear on that too. Lawyers are sorting things out.

Fitzgerald has ordered a non partisan agency to do something that us clearly partisan. Never ever has that been done before.

So it was Fitzgerald.

“Never ever has that been done before.” Nor have a lot of things these days. I don’t recall the destruction of democracy being on the agenda of American voters, yet that is what the Wisconsin GOP is determined to achieve.

I feel a few more major protests coming on.