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Judge Puts Wisconsin Bargaining Law On Hold

A judge in Wisconsin has issued a temporary restraining order that stops a controversial law limiting state workers' collective bargaining rights from going into effect, our colleague Frank James reports over at It's All Politics.

The issue is whether the procedures used by Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP majority in the state legislature to get the law passed violated the state's open meetings law. The judge wants time to study that question. The state is likely going to appeal her decision.

Democratic members of the state Senate left the state during the debate over the legislation, to deny Republicans the quorum they needed to pass the measure. Republicans eventually created a conference committee to move the legislation along. The legal challenge is over whether enough public notice was given before that committee met and whether members of the public were able to get into the state Capitol to watch.

If you need to get up to speed on the controversy over what the governor says is a much-needed tool for getting control over the state's budget and what state employees say is a bid to break their unions, Milwaukee's Journal Sentinelhas extensive coverage here.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.