Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement Friday he would not appeal the Wisconsin Court of Appeals’ ruling that denied a stay on a Dane County judge’s ruling that portions of Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial collective bargaining law, were unconstitutional.
Van Hollen, who represents the state in cases such as these, said he first asked for the stay, which would have kept Act 10 fully enforceable until the courts made an ultimate decision, to avoid confusion over Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas’ decision.
“We asked for a stay because of our concern that municipal employers and others would misconstrue Judge Colas’s order as something that would prevent them from following Act 10,” Van Hollen said in the statement.
Additionally, Van Hollen said it was clear from the appeals court’s decision that Colas’ ruling only applied to the plaintiffs in the pending case, which include Madison Teachers Inc., and did not broadly apply to all unions in the state.
Van Hollen’s claim drew criticism from the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the case, which said in a Friday statement that the appeals court did not include language to support Van Hollen’s claim in their decision, but instead recommended that municipal employers across the state follow Colas’ decision.
Despite the ruling against the stay, Van Hollen said he remains optimistic about the outcome of the case as a whole.
“[The state is] content to focus on [Act 10’s] merits and we look forward to a decision upholding Act 10 in its entirety, consistent with the prior ruling of United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Judicial Circuit,” Van Hollen said in the statement.
