An issue that was last settled in 2019 is being brought up again, rankling Republicans including Rep. Joel Kitchens. Earlier this month, Dane County Judge David Frost ruled that Act 10, the law passed during the Governor Scott Walker administration curbing some of the rights granted to public employee unions, was unconstitutional. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Frost claims that Act 10, which was declared constitutional in 2014 by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and kept out of a federal courtroom by a federal judge in 2019, created two groups of public employees and violated equal protection clauses. Kitchens was the Sturgeon Bay School Board President when Act 10 was passed and says it was a painful time but the right decision as school districts were trying to crunch the numbers.

In the wake of the ruling, Republican State Rep. David Steffen of Howard introduced a bill that would prevent "judge shopping," a practice when political parties file court cases in a county before judges who share their ideological beliefs to get a more favorable ruling. Kitchens says he will closely monitor the legislation before he officially signs on to support it.

Members of the Assembly and Senate were in Madison this week finishing up some of its work before the New Year.