MADISON, Wis. – If courts exist to settle disputes and untangle complicated situations, then Dane County Circuit Court Judge Juan Colas is not doing his job very well.

Last fall Colas handed down a controversial decision declaring sections of Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s landmark legislation limiting collective bargaining for public sector unions, to be unconstitutional.

The state has appealed that decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. which will likely have the final call on the legality of the statute. In the meantime, there has been disagreement about whether Colas’ initial ruling only applies to the two local teachers unions that filed the lawsuit against Act 10, or if it’s applicable across the state.

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Officials from the two local teachers unions that originally filed the suit  – from the Milwaukee and Madison districts – were particularly concerned about the part of the law that forces local unions to have annual recertification elections to determine if employees still want union representation.

Colas issued a clarification Tuesday that clarified absolutely nothing.

On the one hand, he wrote that his initial ruling applies not only to the Madison and Milwaukee districts, but to school districts across the state, according to a story posted on Madison.com. That would seem to suggest that the state would have to stop forcing any local union to have a recertification vote.

But Colas also denied a request by the plaintiff unions to force the state to stop having recertification elections in other school districts, claiming “neither union had been irreparably harmed by the state’s decision to implement the law with other unions,” the news report said.

As a story in The Cap Times put it, “Huh?”

State officials are interpreting the decision as permission to continue forcing recertification elections for most school unions, at least until the Supreme Court issues its decision.

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“If you get to the bottom line, he denies the request that we be enjoined from proceeding,” Peter Davis, general counsel for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, told the newspaper.

But union attorneys believe the decision means that the state must leave local unions alone.

“The judge said ‘That’s what my decision means,'” attorney Lester Pines, who represents the plaintiffs. “The WERC is saying ‘We don’t care.’ That kind of arrogance and lawlessness is emblematic of the Walker administration.”

There’s no doubt that the annual recertification votes have had a major impact, particularly on teachers unions throughout the state. Many teachers unions, including the one in Kenosha, one of the largest districts in the state, have recently been decertified because the failed to meet the Aug. 30 filing deadline.

Christina Brey, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union, said many local unions decided against seeking recertification  because, under Act 10, they only have the right to negotiate over salaries, and raises are limited to increases in the consumer price index.

“Teachers unions will continue to exist without recertification,” Brey said. “The unions aren’t going anywhere.”

We suspect that the decision of many local unions to skip recertification elections is that many were unsure about the outcome. After all, WEAC has reported losing about 30 percent of its statewide membership over the past few years, since Act 10 made union membership and dues paying optional for teachers.

There are probably a lot of local union leaders who would rather lose their state recognition than suffer the embarrassment of being rejected at the ballot box by a majority of their members.

Either way, the teachers in those districts are free to leave their union traps and become the true professionals they were trained to be.

They should take a moment and thank Judge Colas, who had the power to turn back the clock on Act 10, at least temporarily, but lacked the stomach to issue a firm, decisive opinion.