Walker Era Defined: Respect, And Disrespect For Law In Wisconsin

The contrast about the use and misuse of law in Wisconsin is there for all to see.

Yesterday, Scott Walker signed into law the noxiously partisan and unsupportable Voter ID law. It's goal: tamping down voter turnout in cities and on college campuses, complicating the entire election-day experience, and intentionally restricting fundamental voting rights.

Today, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, respecting law and basic governmental practice in a democracy, permanently blocked Walker's most noxious move to date: stripping public employees of their rights to collective bargaining by breaking a statute - - the Open Meetings law - -  to get it done.

The Voter ID law needs to go the way of the union-stripping bill.

The law and legislative process - - state power - - should not be used in Wisconsin against the people and their rights.

You don't create one law by breaking another - - especially the very law created to guarantee open, legal lawmaking.