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A federal judge in Madison on Friday ruled that portions of Act 10 -- which removed most collective bargaining for most public employees -- are unconstitutional.

Several major unions had challenged the fact that Act 10 required absolute majority union recertification and denied voluntary union dues deductions as to general employee unions.

The court found those provisions violated the union members' First Amendment rights, considering that the same rules did not apply to unions for public safety workers like police and firefighters.

"So long as the State of Wisconsin continues to afford ordinary certification and dues deductions to mandatory public safety unions with sweeping bargaining rights, there is no rational basis to deny those rights to voluntary general unions with severely restricted bargaining rights," wrote U.S. District Judge William M. Conley.

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