As we predicted in our blog of February 29, 2012, Wisconsin still-Governor Scott Walker signed Senate Bill 202 last week, which repealed the 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which permitted employees who claimed discrimination to sue for compensatory and punitive damages in the state courts. As The Daily Beast reported, the prior law, which banned discrimination based on race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors, “was enacted largely in response to a large gap between men and women’s compensation, one that was worse than average in Wisconsin—in 2009 the state ranked 36th in the country in terms of workplace gender parity.”

However, as Republican state senator Glenn Grothman stated, the threat of lawsuits unduly burdened business: “If tomorrow you woke up and some policeman is at your door giving you a summons for something, the fact that you’re innocent wouldn’t make you happy, because you have to show you’re innocent at some considerable time and expense.”