{"id":12958,"date":"2011-03-04T16:16:44","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T21:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=12958"},"modified":"2011-03-04T16:18:43","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T21:18:43","slug":"best-of-the-blogs-the-mess-in-madison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/03\/best-of-the-blogs-the-mess-in-madison\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the Blogs: The Mess in Madison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This month\u2019s Best of the Blogs feature takes a look at the budget debate in Madison.\u00a0 In my opinion, it is myopic to focus solely on the budgetary aspects of the ongoing debate.\u00a0 This is a raw political struggle, in which Governor Walker has attacked the primary source of campaign funding for Democrats.\u00a0 The debate over the biennial budget is small potatoes to the leaders of the Democratic Party.\u00a0 They perceive this bill as nothing less than an existential attack on their ability to raise funds (and therefore buy television advertising) in an amount sufficient to elect candidates in a closely divided state.<\/p>\n

If anything, this current fight is only round one, with a second partisan fight over legislative re-districting yet to come.\u00a0 The Voter ID bill, which previously was viewed by Democratic leaders as a dangerous assault on their electoral power, now in comparison seems to be a minor inconvenience.\u00a0 While it is always entertaining to watch two political parties seek to destroy each other, one can\u2019t help but feel that someone in Madison should actually be focused on governing the State.\u00a0 Both Governor Walker, who picked this partisan fight, and the Democrats, who chose to grind government to a halt in order to defend partisan interests, share equal blame in my eyes.<\/p>\n

Who will win this fight?\u00a0 At this moment, public opinion polling shows broad opposition to the idea of ending collective bargaining rights for public employees.\u00a0 Joe Conason has a liberal take on the polling data in this post<\/a> at RealClearPolitics<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Over time, one might expect that public pressure in favor of collective bargaining rights might cause Governor Walker to compromise.\u00a0 However, much money is being spent on advertising to sway public opinion, and many media outlets have reported on this story in ways that seem designed to influence public perception.\u00a0 It is possible (and intended) that these efforts will eventually\u00a0cause public opinion to shift.\u00a0 As usual, George Lakoff has an interesting take on how the language that both sides are adopting in this political debate may ultimately end up influencing the political outcome as much as (if not more than) the merits of the debate.\u00a0\u00a0 He writes <\/a>at the Huffington Post<\/em>.\u00a0 Visiting Assistant Professor Rick Esenberg takes issue with Lakoff\u2019s attempt to frame the debate in this post <\/a>over at Shark and Shepard<\/em>.\u00a0 He sees nothing noble in the actions of the Democratic 14.\u00a0 Meanwhile, David Sirota at Salon<\/em> has a post <\/a>that takes issue with the whole idea that any government in possession of the taxing power can ever truly be called \u201cbroke.\u201d\u00a0 Read too much of this kind of analysis, detailing the way in which words influence our political choices, and you are likely to conclude that George Orwell\u2019s novel 1984<\/em> should be shelved in the non-fiction aisle. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several legal questions have arisen among all of the partisan bickering.\u00a0 Mike Ivey at the Capital Times<\/em> looks at the manner in which the budget bill transfers reserves from the segregated health insurance fund, and uses them to offset costs elsewhere in the budget, and asks whether this part of the bill\u00a0is illegal<\/a>.\u00a0 It does look kind of like the transfer of segregated funds by Governor Doyle in the 2009 budget that was ruled illegal, although in this case the offsetting costs are at least related to health care.\u00a0 Which is more important in the eyes of the law, that the segregated funds are not being used for their intended purpose, or that the alternative use of the funds is similar to the intended purpose?<\/p>\n

Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley believes that the Budget bill unconstitutionally interferes with home rule.\u00a0 As Associate Professor Paul Secunda explains at Workplace Prof Blog<\/em><\/a>, the Milwaukee Home Rule Charter places restrictions on the state government\u2019s ability to alter pension rules adopted by the City.\u00a0 Rick Esenberg questions Langley\u2019s analysis in a post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The most recent legal controversy concerns whether the State Senate has the power to order that Democratic Senators be taken into custody if they are found within Wisconsin borders.\u00a0 At first blush, the State Constitution would seem to provide explicit immunity from arrest for members of the state legislature.\u00a0 However, Jim Lindgren at the Volokh Controversy<\/em> has parsed through the history and the precedent in posts here<\/a> and here<\/a>.\u00a0 He has convinced me that the constitutional immunity does not apply in this case.\u00a0 Elie Mystal is worried that an arrest is possible, and in this post <\/a>at Above the Law <\/em>suggests that Republicans might employ \u201cDog\u201d the Bounty Hunter to track down the missing Democrats.\u00a0 My advice to Dog:\u00a0 don\u2019t do anything without an arrest warrant from a judge. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, Paul Secunda wrote an opinion piece outlining the policy arguments in favor of our society\u2019s recognition of collective bargaining as a legal right.\u00a0 It appears in the Capital Times<\/em> here<\/a>.\u00a0 I tend to agree with Professor Secunda that collective bargaining advances both societal goals and individual human rights.\u00a0 Actually, I have no choice but <\/em>to agree.\u00a0 My father was a longtime member of the Maryland State Teachers Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s Best of the Blogs feature takes a look at the budget debate in Madison.\u00a0 In my opinion, it is myopic to focus solely on the budgetary aspects of the ongoing debate.\u00a0 This is a raw political struggle, in which Governor Walker has attacked the primary source of campaign funding for Democrats.\u00a0 The debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,76,44,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labor-employment-law","category-media-journalism","category-political-processes-rhetoric","category-wisconsin","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}