GOP gets Brown; city’s sick leave ordinance gets day in court
The nation’s liberals let out a collective gasp of horror last night as word spread that Massachusetts voters had elected Republican Scott Brown to fill the Senate seat formerly held by the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
While political prognosticators have been quick to predict the implications of the election, it seems a bit early to me. Brown, after all, voted in favor of health care reform in Massachusetts, enacted when Republican Mitt Romney was governor and had indicated that he could support a scaled-down version that guarantees universal coverage and achieves many of the principles supported by the president and Congressional Democrats. Once again, we see how difficult social change can be.
Another hard-fought policy drama unfolded this morning when Wisconsin’s Fourth District Court of Appeals heard oral arguments about Milwaukee’s disputed paid sick leave law.
Milwaukee voters overwhelmingly supported paid sick leave in 2008 only to see the city’s business lobby successfully challenge the ordinance in court. When Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper opened a hearing on the challenge last year he cautioned that whatever decision he reached was likely to be appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and possibly beyond.
Cooper rejected almost every argument presented by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce but found one point so troubling that he felt compelled to rule that the entire ordinance was unconstitutional. As written, the sick leave law would cover victims of domestic violence who needed to take time to testify in court or seek other assistance relating to their safety.
Cooper found the ordinance unacceptable because he believed this clause to be inconsistent with the accepted understanding of sick leave. It seemed a curious ruling since the local office of 9 to 5, the National Association for Working Women, which led the effort to collect petitions and get the referendum before the voters and the city of Milwaukee, agreed that the provision could be dropped if it caused legal objections without damaging the rest of the ordinance.
Also curious was the absence today of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who had expressed his opposition to the ordinance but had pledged to follow the will of the voters. Barrett, who is running for governor, is on a campaign tour around the state, but no one from his staff or that of City Attorney Grant Langley seemed to feel that their presence was merited.
As much as the Massachusetts election energized the nation’s conservatives who oppose health care reform and much of President Obama’s domestic agenda, today’s court hearing appeared to favor 9 to 5.
Barbara Zack Quindel, the attorney representing 9 to 5, opened the session with a technical defense of the validity of the ordinance, and the three appellate justices peppered her with questions. A litany of supposed flaws with the ordinance was then outlined by attorney Joseph L. Olson of Milwaukee’s Michael Best & Friedrich, which represents the MMAC. But if Quindel was challenged by the justices, Olson was grilled.
Judges Paul Higginbotham, Paul Lundsten and Margaret Vergeront all took direct shots at Olson and the MMAC’s briefs, finding factual errors and questionable interpretations. Lundsten and Vergeront were circumspect in their questions, asking Olson to help them understand the MMAC’s arguments, but Higginbotham admitted he was showing his hand and was unconvinced by the arguments made by the business lobby.
At one point, Higginbotham asserted that victims of domestic abuse clearly suffered from physical and mental illness and assumed that Olson would agree. The attorney replied that he did.
MMAC President Timothy Sheehy, who attended with his wife, would not comment about how he felt the session had gone, referring questions to Olson who said, “It’s always hard to tell. I’ve been in courtrooms where I’ve been grilled by judges and still won the case.”
Quindel would not respond to questions about the session. Amy Stear, organizing director of Wisconsin’s 9 to 5 traveled to Madison in a bus with about 50 supporters.
“We have to be careful about what we say, but we have a great deal of confidence in our attorney and feel her arguments were well-reasoned,” she said. “The judges seemed to ask good questions, and we are hopeful for a fair outcome.”
There is no indication when the court will issue its ruling and, as Judge Cooper predicted, it is likely that additional appeals are likely. In Madison and in Milwaukee, in Massachusetts and in Washington, DC, with health care reform and with paid sick leave, the struggle for reform continues.
It brings to mind the hopeful quote often attributed to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
