Wisconsin unions file first lawsuit against new ‘right to work’ law News
Wisconsin unions file first lawsuit against new ‘right to work’ law

[JURIST] The Wisconsin AFL-CIO [union website] and two local labor unions on Tuesday filed the first lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the state’s newly enacted “right to work” law [SB 44 materials]. The International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 1061 and the United Steelworkers District 2 [union websites] filed the lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court [official website] to challenge the constitutionality of the law and to seek an injunction. The new law provides that workers cannot be compelled to join a union or to pay union dues and fees. The lawsuit challenges the state of Wisconsin and Governor Scott Walker [official website], who signed the bill on Monday [JURIST report], for violating individual property rights protected by Article I Section 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution [text, PDF].

Wisconsin is the twenty-fifth state with such a law on the books. Similar legislation is under consideration in Missouri, where the House of Representatives approved [JURIST report] “right to work” legislation last month. In November the Indiana Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] the state’s right-to-work law, stating it did not violate the state’s constitution. The neighboring states of Michigan [JURIST report] and Illinois have also received challenges to their right to work laws. JURIST Guest Columnist Karla Swift of the Michigan State AFL-CIO [advocacy website] has argued [JURIST op-ed] that the “right to work” laws enacted by the Michigan Legislature in 2012 are unconstitutional and were enacted in violation of Michigan’s Open Meeting Act [text].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.