Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear Act 10 lawsuit

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging the landmark collective bargaining law known as Act 10.

In an order issued Wednesday, the court did not explain its decision to hear the case.

The justices’ decision comes about a week after an election that brought Democrats to power at every level of state government. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, while officially nonpartisan, is led by a 5-2 liberal majority.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of unions in November 2023. It focuses on how workers were classified under Act 10.

The landmark collective bargaining law of 2011 created two groups of employees. “Public safety employees,” such as police officers and firefighters, have preserved their union rights under the law. “General employees,” who make up the rest of the public workforce, did not.

The problem, unions say, is that the list of “general employees” includes people like correctional officers working in state prisons, conservation officers and Capitol Police. Unions say there is no “rational basis” for treating them differently from police or firefighters.

In December 2024, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost sided with the unions, declaring the law unconstitutional. But Frost suspended his decision almost immediately, keeping the law in effect ever since.

In July of this year, a conservative state appeals court overturned Dane County’s decision. In that 2-1 decision, the appeals court said the lawsuit challenging Act 10 raised questions that had already been resolved by prior decisions upholding the law, both in state and federal courts.

Although Wednesday’s order was not signed, only conservative Justice Annette Ziegler dissented. Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn did not participate in the decision. Hagedorn, who was chief legal counsel to former Republican Gov. Scott Walker during the time Walker introduced and signed the landmark law, previously announced he would not hear the Act 10 lawsuit.

That could leave five liberal justices and just one conservative, Ziegler, to consider the case aimed at overturning the law determining Walker’s gubernatorial tenure. Ziegler has announced she is retiring and two liberals are running to replace her, but she will remain on the court until her term ends next July.

The legal battle will play out at a time when Democratic lawmakers have openly discussed repealing Act 10 now that they control both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office for the first time since the law’s passage.