Scott Walker signs bill on Indian team names and mascots
Madison — Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Thursday making it more difficult for the state to force schools to drop their Indian team names and voiding state orders to change the nicknames for Mukwonago High School and two other schools.
Walker's action rewrites a 2010 law — the first of its kind in the nation — that made it extremely hard for schools to keep their American Indian team names, mascots or logos if they had complaints filed against them.
Tribes fought the effort to scale back that law and had urged Walker to veto it. Even before Walker signed it, opponents said they would explore a lawsuit to overturn the new law on the theory that it violates the constitution's guarantee of equal protection to have a statute that deals specifically with one racial group.
Thursday marked the last day Walker had to sign or veto the bill. If he did not act, it would have automatically gone into law without his signature.
Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/tablet/news/scott-walker-on-thursday-to-sign-bill-on-indian-team-names-and-mascots-b99167633z1-236592011.html
In contrast, North Dakota's Republican governor Jack Dalrymple signed a bill in Nov. 2011 allowing the University of North Dakota to retire its "Fighting Sioux" mascot.
Walker gotta walk outta Madison in January 2015!
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