The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has upheld the Wisconsin union law that was the subject of massive protests in 2011, including a takeover of the State Capitol and widespread threats and acts of intimidation. The decision was unanimous in most respects. The full decision is embedded at the bottom of this post.

“A federal court of appeals on Friday upheld Wisconsin’s law repealing most collective bargaining for most public employees , handing a victory to Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans who put the law in place amid tumult two years ago.” …

While technically a “split” decision, it was unanimous in most respects, with only Judge Hamilton dissenting “from the portion of the court’s decision upholding Wisconsin’s selective prohibition on payroll deductions for dues for some public employee unions but not others.” (p. 43) Even Judge Hamilton agreed that the rest of the law should stand…