It figures.
Two Wisconsin fleebaggers wrote the law Republicans will use to defeat the political ruling yesterday by activist Judge Maryann Sumi that blocked the publication of a controversial new union law.
The
Wisconsin State Journal reported:
Senate Rule 93 says that when the Legislature is in special session, A notice of a committee meeting is not required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board.
Thats the rule Republican leaders are citing in their contention that one of the votes leading up to passage of Gov. Scott Walkers controversial anti-union bill was legal.
One ironic footnote:
The rule was written in 1983 by two of the Democratic senators who left Wisconsin last month to avoid voting on the bill, Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, and Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison.
The two were among 14 senators who fled to Illinois to slow down the bill, which Walker and Republican leaders were fast-tracking through the Legislature.
Premises:
1. The legislature of Wisconsin can meet under two types of sessions: Regular and Special.
2. If I remember correctly the stripped down Budget Repair Bill was passed on the night of March 9th.
3. The 2011-2012 proposed session schedule shows the legislature was scheduled to be in Regular Session from March 8 through March 10th.
(WI Legislature - Session Schedule)
4. From the Wisconsin Constitution
(http://legis.wisconsin.gov/rsb/unannotated_wisconst.pdf)
Article IV, §11
Meeting of legislature. SECTION 11. [As amended Nov.
1881 and April 1968] The legislature shall meet at the seat of
government at such time as shall be provided by law, unless convened
by the governor in special session, and when so convened
no business shall be transacted except as shall be necessary to
accomplish the special purposes for which it was convened.
5. Senate Rule 93
(Wisconsin Legislature Data)
Senate Rule 93. Special or extraordinary sessions. Unless otherwise provided by the senate for a specific special or extraordinary session, the rules of the senate adopted for the biennial session, with the following modifications, apply to each special session called by the governor and to each extraordinary session called by the senate and assembly organization committees or called by a joint resolution approved by both houses:
Senate Rule 93 (2)
(2) A notice of a committee meeting is not required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board, and a bulletin of committee hearings may not be published.
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Premises #4 and #5 show that under the Wisconsin State Constitution and Rules of the Senate, that there are two types of session under which the legislature meets: Regular and Special Sessions. The State Constitution indicates they will meet in accordance with prescribed law (Regular Session) and Special Sessions (if recalled into session by the Governor). Logically speaking the Governor would not need to call the legislature to session if it is already in session. Special Sessions are used to reconvene the legislature when they have adjourned for breaks and called by the Governor to attend to a specific purpose. Just because the law was passed at night, does not make it a Special Session since it was a normal legislative business day.
Since on March 9th the legislature was in a regularly scheduled period, then it would not have been called by the Governor and so it would have been a Regular Session and not a Special Session.
Senate Rule 93 explicitly states that the modification of the rules only applies to Special Sessions, since March 9th was a Regular Session the modification of the rules would not have applied. Unless the record of the Senate shows they had a motion to adjourn and vote to adjourned early (prior to March 10th, well actually March 9th) and then that the Governor actually issued a recall notice to Senate to reconvene on March 9th stating a specific purpose (i.e. stripping and passing the Budget Repair Bill).
Has any one seen for formal declaration to adjourn the Regular Session buy the Senate and the subsequently required recall notice by the Governor?
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