Some 450 citations were issued to participants of the Solidarity Sing Along – a daily noon-hour protest event in the Capitol rotunda – last year. Markson noted that citations to singers comprised more than a third of the contested forfeiture cases in Dane County court last year. And dealing with amendments increased the time and expense of dealing with those cases.

“The case processing guidelines adopted by the state’s chief judges call for us to have 95 percent of our contested forfeiture cases concluded within six months,” Markson wrote. “That, of course, would not be possible if citations could be routinely amended several months after they were issued.”

Markson’s other ruling, the one on the constitutionality of the 29 citations, struck down the emergency rules, which expired last fall.

Attorney Robert Jambois, who represents several of the singers, is arguing in court that the rules in effect before and after the emergency rules were being enforced are unconstitutional as well. He says he’s “very optimistic” that the courts will come down on his side.