State Supreme Court Will Hear Challenges To Act 10, Same-Sex Partnership Law

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to consider two controversial cases today.

One challenges the constitutionality of the union bargaining rights law Act 10, and the other challenges a law granting domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples.

The bargaining rights case was brought by the Madison teacher’s union and a Milwaukee city employees union, claiming the law known as Act 10 violates the equal protection rights of public-employee union members. All of the major public-employee unions in the state have filed amicus briefs calling on the court to find portions of Act 10 unconstitutional and determine whether the law applies equally to state and local government employees.

The high court has also agreed to consider a challenge to a 2009 law granting domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples. That challenge comes from the director of the group American Family Action, the same group that was the driving force behind the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

In that case, the court will decide whether the domestic partnership benefits law violates that constitutional amendment.