Wisconsin
Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks UW Health nurses’ unionization, backing Act 10
Scott Walker signs Act 10 in 2011
March 11, 2011: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signs a bill that ends collective bargaining for most public union employees during a ceremony Thursday at the Capitol in Madison.
The Post-Crescent
MADISON – UW Health is not legally required to recognize its nurses’ union or engage in collective bargaining, a unanimous state Supreme Court ruled.
“When we examine the statutory language along with the statutory history, we conclude that Act 10 ended the collective bargaining requirements formerly placed on the (University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics) Authority,” wrote Justice Brian Hagedorn in an opinion released June 27.
The court’s ruling upholds previous decisions by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission and a Dane County Circuit Court judge.
It also brings to the fore the lasting impact of Act 10, the 2011 state law engineered by Republican former Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. Hagedorn, the author of the court’s unanimous opinion, provided legal counsel in the creation and defense of the law, and Jacob Frost, the Dane County judge who previously ruled in UW Health’s favor, appeared to have signed a petition to recall Walker over the law
The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission ruled in November 2022 that UW Health is not required by law to recognize UW Health nurses’ union or to engage in collective bargaining. The union had been formed a few months prior to the commisssion’s ruling, with help from SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin.
UW Health nurses’ last union contract expired in 2014. At the time, UW Health said Act 10 — a 2011 state law that eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public employee unions — barred it from negotiating a new contract. Nurses countered that hospital management — acting as an independent body — could choose to recognize the union and bargain with it.
Fueled in part by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses’ efforts to unionize also followed cost-cutting measures that raised concerns about staffing and patient care. While UW Health administrators agreed problems existed, they said Act 10 prevented unionization as part of the solution.
UW Health and SEIU petitioned the state’s employment relations commission in 2022 as part of an agreement brokered by Gov. Tony Evers, asking the commission to determine whether the Wisconsin Employment Peace Act applies to the hospital. If the Peace Act — a chapter of state law governing collective bargaining — were determined to apply, UW Health would have to bargain with the union.
Both the commission and a Dane County Circuit Court judge ruled UW Health was not covered under the Peace Act and, as such, not required to work with the nurses’ union.
Attorneys for the nurses argued to the Supreme Court in February that the hospital functions like a private employer, and therefore should be governed by the Peace Act. UW Health attorneys countered that the legislative intent of Act 10 was clearly understood to dismantle unions and, despite the fact UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority was created in the mid-1990s as a quasi-government entity, lawmakers in passing Act 10 made clear it was included and considered a public entity.
“Taken together, the effect of the legislature’s changes in Act 10 are no mystery. When it created the Authority, the legislature added the Authority as an employer under the Peace Act and imposed numerous other collective bargaining provisions,” Hagedorn wrote. “In Act 10, the legislature eliminated the Authority as a covered employer along with other collective bargaining requirements. We therefore hold that the Authority is no longer covered by the Peace Act and is not required to collectively bargain under the Peace Act.”
Jessica Van Egeren of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Wisconsin
South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, officials in standoff with homeowner over year-round skeleton display
The city of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has ordered a homeowner to take down his year-round giant skeleton display or face fines, but the homeowner is standing firm and refusing, even as the deadline to remove the display has passed.
Now there’s a skeleton standoff.
The city cited ordinance violations in their order for Sean Oster to dismantle the lawn decorations. The notice specifically references “large Halloween decorations being displayed not during the appropriate time of year.”
Oster was also ordered to make other improvements to his property.
But Oster has refused to take down the display, which is re-dressed as the year goes on and is currently sporting a Fourth of July theme. The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, has come to his aid, saying the city’s actions violate Oster’s First Amendment rights.
City administrators declined to comment, citing a pending investigation. Neighbors have been divided by the display; some say they’re fine with it, and think it brings fun and positivity to the neighborhood, but some others want to see it removed and say the lawn should be kept up better and more consistently.
Oster said he’s hoping to reach an agreement with the city, and said he’s corrected all other violations outside of the display.
Wisconsin
Former Wisconsin judge to be sentenced after conviction in obstructing arrest of Mexican immigrant
Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan, who was convicted of felony obstruction for helping an immigrant evade federal officers in a case that highlighted President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in federal court.
Dugan, 67, faces up to five years in prison after a jury convicted her on Dec. 19. She resigned from her position as a Milwaukee County circuit judge two weeks later amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers. She had been a judge for nine years.
Trump administration tried to make an example out of Milwaukee judge
The Trump administration brought the case against Dugan as the president pressed ahead with his sweeping immigration crackdown. Trump’s administration and his allies branded Dugan as an activist judge, while Dugan’s attorneys said during the trial that the Trump administration was trying to make an example out of Dugan to “crush her.”
Immigrant rights advocates and other Dugan allies argued that the administration was trying to use her case to blunt judicial opposition to Trump’s immigration efforts. The case became a bellwether nationally in the conflict between the judiciary and Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.
Dugan’s attorneys declined to comment ahead of the sentencing. Dugan did not testify during her trial, but her attorneys said she would be making comments to the court on Wednesday. That would be her first public comments on the case in more than a year.
Prosecutors push for ‘serious sentence’
Dugan’s attorneys argued that as a judge she was immune from prosecution. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who will hand down the sentence, has rejected attempts by Dugan to vacate her obstruction conviction.
Prosecutors argued in a sentencing memo filed last week that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put both law enforcement and the public at risk.
“Judges are entrusted with tremendous discretion, but there is a line they cannot cross,” Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling wrote. “The defendant crossed that line.”
Dugan’s attorneys argued she has “punished enough,” including resigning as a judge and facing threats of violence. They argued in her sentencing memo that she should not be sentenced to any jail time besides the part of one day she already spent in federal custody.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, the presentence report calls for 15 to 21 months behind bars. The judge is not bound by those guidelines.
Prosecutors said the average sentence for obstruction cases is 16 months, but they did not recommend a sentence.
“This was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence,” Frohling wrote.
No matter what she is sentenced to, Dugan’s attorneys said they plan to file an appeal.
Dugan’s case was a first for Wisconsin
Dugan’s case marked the first time that a state judge in Wisconsin went to trial on charges of obstructing immigration agents. She was found not guilty of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.
On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.
Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office because she told them their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient grounds to arrest Flores-Ruiz.
After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.
Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.
MENASHA, Wis. (WFRV) — History was made today, as Melodee Liegel successfully completed her nearly 17-hour swim just before 9:00 p.m. on July 7.
The swim, which started at the Fond du Lac Lighthouse and ended in Menasha, was just under 28 whole miles in length. Liegel began her swim at 4:00 in the morning, treading water only occasionally for snack and rest breaks.
Liegel, a resident of Delafield, Wisconsin, is the first person in history to complete the swim, which covered the entirety of Lake Winnebago.
Local fishing guide Troy Peterson was riding alongside Melodee as she completed her swim. His Facebook has more information, as does their website tracking her swim.
WFRV will update this story as necessary.
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