Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi said Wednesday she expects to reach a decision within the next few days on the lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker's law stripping state workers of most collective bargaining rights.
The Department of Justice repeated its argument that the lawsuit by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk should be dismissed because the law has not taken affect yet.
""We think we've put together sufficient reasons for her to dismiss the lawsuit,"" Department of Justice spokesperson Steve Means said.
Falk has argued the bill is not valid because Republicans violated the Legislature's open meetings law when voting on the bill.
The state is also facing lawsuits from Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne and various labor unions.
Sumi is hearing other lawsuits as well and has ruled the collective bargaining law is not yet in effect, issuing a temporary restraining order to prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from implementing it.
Means said dealing with Falk's lawsuit is the first of several steps the state needs to take with the bill.
""From the state's perspective, it would be basically doing away with one of several challenges to the law, it wouldn't necessarily do away with other challenges,"" Means said. ""For the law to go forward and be treated as valid law, we've got to win all the lawsuits.""
Means also said Sumi's decisions will not be the final rulings on the case.
""We think ultimately these issues will get resolved at the Wisconsin Supreme Court level,"" he said.
