Judiciary Gone Wild: New Jersey Supreme Court Forces Legislature To Spend More Money, Wisconsin Judge Strikes Down Union Bill

Judge Maryann Sumi struck down Wisconsin’s reform legislation:

In a 33-page decision issued Thursday, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said she would freeze the legislation because GOP lawmakers on a committee broke the state’s open meetings law in passing it March 9. …

“This decision explains why it is necessary to void the legislative actions flowing from those violations,” wrote Sumi, who was appointed to the bench by former GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson.

The New Jersey Supreme Court also recently engaged in an illegitimate "power-grab":

The people of New Jersey ought to be outraged that their state’s highest court has unilaterally appointed itself the supreme authority on matters of spending policy, not simply because that would be a bad system in theory, but because it violates New Jersey’s own constitution, which gives plenary appropriations authority to the legislature. And they ought to be even more outraged if legislative leaders acquiesce to this power grab in order to give themselves political cover to raise taxes. In his statement reacting to the case, Governor Christie stated that “New Jersey has some of the highest taxes in America. New Jerseyans are already incredibly overtaxed. Therefore, as I have repeatedly stated, I do not believe raising taxes is the answer.” As I see it, Democratic legislators have two options here: (1) allow the judicial branch to get away with dictating tax increases; or (2) make the difficult choices on the spending side that would prevent such a tax increase. Whatever they decide, I’m sure it will make the next election cycle fairly interesting.

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