Union law published despite court order

MADISON, Wis., March 26 (UPI) -- Wisconsin's contentious new public employee law became even more divisive Friday when the Legislative Reference Bureau published it.

That leaves Republicans, who support the bill, and Democrats, who don't, arguing about whether it has become law, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. A judge issued a temporary restraining order barring its enforcement.

"It's published," said Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican majority leader of the state Senate. "It's law. That's what I contend."

Assembly Minority Leader Pete Barca, a Democrat, said the publication only thickens the "cloud of suspicion" around the law. A lawyer for the non-partisan Legislative Council, in a memo to Barca, said the secretary of state's action, not the bureau's, makes a law.

Democrats and unions say Republicans violated Wisconsin's open meetings law when they passed the legislation this month after Democratic senators fled to Illinois to deny them a quorum. Gov. Scott Walker signed it March 11.

The law strips most Wisconsin public employees of collective bargaining rights.