Corneil White addresses protesters in March 2015 after they had gathered at the state Capitol to rally against so-called right-to-work legislation that ultimately passed and was signed into law. Credit: Rick Wood

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Madison — In the first step of a long legal battle to come, a Dane County judge on Friday struck down Wisconsin's so-called right-to-work law, finding it violated the state constitution.

The law is by no means dead. Attorney General Brad Schimel shot back Friday that he would appeal and win, noting that every other state's right-to-work law has survived court challenges.

Schimel, a Republican, did not signal his immediate next steps in the case, but he could try to get the law reinstated quickly by asking the judge or an appeals court to put it back in place while he pursues an appeal.

Last year, Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature made Wisconsin the 25th right-to-work state. Such laws bar businesses and unions from reaching labor deals that require workers to pay fees to the union.

State right-to-work laws do not vary greatly from one another because federal law leaves little room for any differences.

In a 15-page ruling, Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust found Wisconsin's law, known as 2015 Act 1, violated a clause of the state constitution that says the government can't take property from individuals or organizations without fair compensation.

Foust noted the new law chips into how much money unions take in as workers choose not to pay fees to them. Under federal law, those unions have to represent all workers, even if they decline to pay union fees.

"While plaintiffs losses today could be characterized by some as minor, they are not isolated and the impact of Act 1 over time is threatening the unions' very economic viability," Foust wrote.

Foust served as Dane County district attorney as a Democrat from 1989 until 1997, when GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson appointed him to the bench. He did not run for re-election this week and will step down as a judge July 31.

The lawsuit was brought by the state AFL-CIO and unions representing steelworkers and machinists.

Supporters of the law say workers shouldn't have to make payments if they don't want to belong to a union. Unions argue they should be able to negotiate contracts that require fees from all workers who benefit from the wages and job protections they provide.

Like Schimel, Walker said Friday that he believed the law eventually would be restored.

"We are confident Wisconsin's freedom-to-work law is constitutional and will ultimately be upheld," Walker posted in a message on Twitter.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said in a statement that the decision showed the right-to-work law was unjust.

"Today, the courts put a needed check on Scott Walker's attacks on working families," Neuenfeldt said. "Right-to-work goes against the Wisconsin principles of fairness and democracy and hurts all of Wisconsin by eroding the strength of our middle class."

The case will likely next go to one of the state's appeals courts. It will probably be ultimately decided by the state Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 5-2 majority.

Foust noted other states have upheld their right-to-work laws, but said he wasn't bound by those decisions in interpreting Wisconsin's Constitution. He emphasized that unions lost money and power under the right-to-work law, but were still required to provide services to employees who chose not to pay for them.

He rejected arguments by the state that the law did not take something from the unions.

"Labor is a commodity that can be bought and sold," Foust wrote. "A doctor, a telephone company, a mechanic — all would be shocked to find they do not own the services they perform."

He added: "Plaintiffs will be obligated to spend treasury — their property — on services for which they cannot legally request compensation."

Friday's decision is the latest in the state's ongoing labor battles.

Walker made his name nationally soon after he took office in 2011 by introducing and approving Act 10, which all but eliminated collective bargaining for most public workers. At that time, he pledged to prevent legislation affecting private-sector unions from reaching his desk.

Ahead of his brief presidential run last year, he changed course and embraced making Wisconsin a right-to-work state.

For years, union membership in Wisconsin has fallen steadily and in 2015 it collapsed, falling well below the national average for the first time and thinning the ranks of the labor movement by tens of thousands of workers in one of its former bastions.

In 2015, 8.3% of Wisconsin workers, or 223,000 in all, were members of unions, according to federal statistics. That was down sharply from the 306,000 people, or 11.7% of the state's workforce, who belonged to unions in 2014.