Wisconsin Supreme Court Will Hear Act 10 Lawsuit

Wisconsin Supreme Court. Photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging the landmark collective bargaining law known as Act 10.

In an order issued Wednesday, the court did not explain its decision to hear the case.

The move by justices comes roughly a week after an election that swept Democrats into power at all levels of state government. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, while officially nonpartisan, is run by a 5-2 liberal majority.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of unions in November 2023. It involves how workers were classified under Act 10.

The landmark 2011 collective bargaining law created two groups of employees. “Public safety employees,” like police officers and firefighters, preserved their union rights under the law. “General employees,” who make up the rest of the public workforce, did not.

The problem, unions argue, is that the list of “general employees” includes people like correctional officers working in state prisons, conservation wardens and Capitol Police. Unions contend there’s no “rational basis” to treat them differently than police or firefighters.

In December 2024, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost sided with unions, declaring the law unconstitutional. But Frost stayed his ruling almost immediately, keeping the law in place ever since.

In July of this year, a conservative state Appeals Court overturned the Dane County ruling. In that 2-1 decision, the appeals court said the lawsuit challenging Act 10 raised issues that had already been answered by previous rulings that upheld the law, both in state and federal court.

While Wednesday’s order was unsigned, only conservative Justice Annette Ziegler dissented. Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn did not participate in the ruling. Hagedorn, who was chief legal counsel for former Republican Gov. Scott Walker during the period when Walker introduced and signed the landmark law, had previously announced he won’t hear the Act 10 lawsuit.

That could leave five liberal justices and just one conservative, Ziegler, to consider the case that seeks to overturn the defining law of Walker’s governorship. Ziegler has announced she’s retiring, and two liberals are running to replace her,  but she’ll remain on the court through the end of her term next July.

The legal battle will unfold at a time when Democratic lawmakers have openly discussed repealing Act 10 now that they control both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office for the first time in since the law was passed.

Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear Act 10 lawsuit was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.