Here’s a cheer and a great sigh of relief for the State Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the Doyle state’s efforts to get around the law through labor negotiations.

The court rejected arguments that the Legislature changed the open records law when it  approved labor contracts the prohibited employees’ names from being made public. (Those contracts were negotiated during the short, mostly forgettable McCallum administration.)

A decision the other way would have set the terrible precedent of allowing laws to be changed silently and secretly, without public notice or debate, to satisfy whatever special interest can get their hooks into a willing legislator.

Sounds a bit like the state budget process, doesn’t it?