In her ruling, Sumi distinguished between the county’s lawsuit and another lawsuit brought by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne alleging legislators’ passage of the measure violated the state’s open meetings law. That lawsuit is also pending before Sumi.

“The answers are straightforward: the district attorney has explicit statutory authority to enforce the open meetings law; Dane County does not,” Sumi wrote.

She added that state statutes grant circuit courts authority to void actions taken in violation of the open meetings law and to issue injunctions but does not give the court the authority to declare state laws unconstitutional.

In the Ozanne open meetings case, Sumi last month issued a temporary restraining order that bars the state from publishing and implementing the collective bargaining law. The order remains in effect. The state Department of Justice has appealed the order to the state Supreme Court and has also asked the high court to take up the case directly, alleging that Sumi acted beyond her authority by issuing the order.

The Supreme Court has not acted on either request yet.

Falk noted in a statement Thursday that she was among the first of several officials to file open meetings complaints with Ozanne, leading to his lawsuit.