Appeals Court Grants Stay in State’s Right-to-Work Lawsuit

MADISON –The Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Dist. III has granted a stay in the State’s right-to-work lawsuit, putting on hold a lower court’s ruling that struck down the law.  The ruling came down late Tuesday evening.

In response to the Court’s decision, the Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a statement expressing confidence that the law will ultimately be found to be constitutional.  “The Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Dist. III has granted a stay in the right-to-work case, giving our citizens more certainty as the law works its way through the courts. We feel confident the law will ultimately be found constitutional, as it has been in more than half the States across the country.”

In a Tweet posted following the announcement Governor Scott Walker declared “Freedom to work is back,” [in Wisconsin].

In early April, Dane County Circuit court Judge William Faust struck down Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, declaring that the law constitutes an unlawful taking of a union’s property without just compensation.  The State of Wisconsin appealed Judge Faust’s decision and sought a stay of the ruling until the issue could be decided by a higher court.  The stay was denied and the matter moved on to the Court of Appeals, which issued its ruling Tuesday night.

Wisconsin became the 25th state with a right-to-work law when Governor Scott Walker signed Wisconsin Act 1 into law in March 2015.  Among its provisions, the law gives private sector workers the choice of paying union fees.

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