A ruling Thursday by Wisconsin's Supreme Court held that Governor Scott Walker's 2011 law crippling the ability of public sector unions to collectively bargain constitutional, as well as another law requiring potential voters to provide photo identification. Walker's law, entitled Act 10, was introduced to cut labor costs by reducing benefits for public employees, and limits collective bargaing for those workers to inflation-based wage increases. Act 10 proved wildly controversial in Wisconsin and across the country, prompting a recall vote that Walker barely survived. The court's ruling gives Walker an important victory as he heads towards a hotly contested reelection bid.
See "Court upholds Wisconsin collective bargaining and voter ID laws", Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2014