A vote in the assembly is scheduled for 11:00am local time today, 10th March, but nobody seriously expects any significant defection within the heavy Republican majority.
Upon learning of the coup d'état, crowds rushed and occupied the capitol building in violation of Walker's Department of Administration restrictions. See video here.
Although exempted from the draconian provisions of the bill, it's been clear for weeks that the police and their unions know that it is only a matter of time and opportunity until Walker attempts to destroy their political voice as well.
Clearly the next round of conflict will surround injunctions and constitutional challenges to this extraordinary bill, which surely will be legion. But Republican Walker's fantastic incompetence and three-week public relations fiasco has provided more than enough evidence to prove that the measures were never intended to address fiscal issues, but solely to destroy the historically Democrat unions ability to organize politically.
Strike action of some kind, maybe even the ledgendary National General Strike, appears to be immanent. Protests are being organized at county courthouses statewide, as Madison doesn't appear big enough to contain the people's fury at this end-run past constitutional process.
In my mind, the fundamental question becomes: "If the U.S. Supreme Court is willing to uphold corporate political rights for businesses under Citizens United, how will they deny them to labor unions without a tacit admission that our society is held together only by sheer brute force?"
I guess that begs the further question, given police disgust at Walker's contempt for public trust and order: "What if they held a Civil War and the military refused to show up?"
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