Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, was the only Democratic lawmaker present at the March 9 joint conference committee meeting, which was the subject of the lawsuit.

At the start of the meeting, Barca immediately stood up and screamed at his Republican colleagues that they were in violation of the state's open meetings law.

"We felt very strongly all along that what they did was a clear violation of the law," said Barca to a crowd of reporters following Sumi's ruling.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne after he received complaints over the meeting from acting Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and others.

Ozanne said in a brief interview Friday morning that these verified complaints allowed his office to investigate whether the open meetings law had been violated.

"We did an investigation and then proceeded with the filing after the investigation," he said.

In the short-term, Sumi's ruling prevents Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law. La Follette had said he planned to do so, pending legal delays, on March 25. That means the law would have become effective on March 26.