A few days ago Dane County Circuit
Judge Juan Colas partially overturned Governor Scott Walker’s (R-WI) Act 10 –
which destroyed collective bargaining rights for, public employees a year ago.
However, the real story, in my judgment, begins with Judge Colas justification
for doing so: The judge made it quite clear in his
ruling that Act 10, which destroyed collective bargaining for some public
employees while allowing other public employees to keep their collective
bargaining intact, was a clear-cut violation of the Equal Protection Clause in
the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) – No state shall “deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” (words
underlined for emphasis).
It is clear that
Walker’s Act 10, protects those who were allowed to keep their collective
bargaining powers, while failing to protect those whose collective bargaining powers
it destroyed.
The real story,
however, lies in the fact that no one seems to notice that all of Governor
Walker’s economic and social policies also violate the equal protection clause
in the Fourteenth Amendment. His tax cuts and tax breaks for corporations and
wealthy Americans, which subjected the middle class and working class to bear
the full burden of balancing Wisconsin’s budget on their backs, is one of the
best examples of this. However, equal protection clause violations have
always been the hallmark of Scott Walker’s policies. A thorough investigation
of his policies in his previous job as Milwaukee County Executive will support
this claim.
I am praying
and hoping that leaders in the state’s Democratic Party will conduct a complete
investigation of Scott Walker’s violations and takes these cases to court, in
manners similar to the same way Madison Teachers Inc. and Public Employees
Local 61 did it.
by
James A. Porter
