MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge weighed arguments Tuesday about whether her court order intended to temporarily block the state’s divisive new collective bargaining law was still in place, or whether Republican leaders had again outmaneuvered their opponents by using a legal loophole.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi scheduled Tuesday’s hearing to consider arguments in one of several lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s law, which would strip most public workers of collective bargaining rights and which led to weeks of pro-union protests in and around the state Capitol.

But Sumi was also expected to weigh in on whether the law took effect when a state office unexpectedly published it online, despite her order blocking the secretary of state from publishing it in a newspaper — the typical last step before a law takes effect in Wisconsin.

If she were to declare that it took effect Saturday — the day after its online publication — it would mark the second time the Republicans used a loophole to push the law forward. After weeks of stalemate, Republican senators passed the law after finding a way to vote on it without their Democratic colleagues, who had fled the state to deny a quorum.

Either way, the law’s legitimacy will likely be decided by the state Supreme Court, which has not indicated whether it would take up an appeals court’s request to hear the case.

Walker, whose refusal to bend on the collective bargaining issue earned him accolades among many conservatives and condemnation from Democrats and labor unions, was moving forward as if the law took effect. In addition to the collective bargaining issue, the law would require all public workers except police and firefighters to pay more for their health and pension plans, in what would amount to an 8 percent pay cut, on average.

The governor’s top aide, Mike Huebsch, said Monday that the administration was preparing a computer program that would account for the new deductions and halt deductions of union dues from state workers’ paychecks, starting April 21. The Department of Administration would stop that work if a court determined the law didn’t take effect Saturday, Huebsch added.

Secretary of State Doug La Follette, a Democrat, and the head of the nonpartisan agency that posted the law online, the Legislative Reference Bureau, contend that a law can’t take effect until the secretary of state orders it published in a newspaper.

Democratic Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, one of several people suing to block the law, argued as much in a court brief filed Monday night. Ozanne, who contends that the Senate violated Wisconsin’s open records/meetings statute because it didn’t give enough prior public notice before voting on the reconfigured law, asked Sumi to declare that the law hadn’t taken effect on Tuesday. He wrote that the secretary of state and the reference bureau must work in tandem to publish laws, and that one can’t act alone.

“Mere electronic posting, absent the other steps, particularly the involvement of the secretary of state … is itself meaningless and has no legal effect,” Ozanne wrote.

The state had appealed Sumi’s restraining order to a higher court, but asked that court on Monday to withdraw the appeal and asked Sumi to cancel Tuesday’s hearing because it believes the law took effect and the point is moot. The appeals court denied the state’s request Tuesday, saying it had already asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case, and is waiting to hear back.

Given the difference of opinions, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards told districts that are still negotiating with teachers not to take any official action until the courts resolve the dispute.

“Because we have a difference of opinion within the state administration, the safest place to be is to not enter an agreement at the present time,” said Bob Butler, an attorney for the school boards association. “I’m very hesitant to tell someone to go out and do something a portion of the state is telling you not to do.”

Any deals reached since Saturday could later be challenged if that turns out to have been the effective date of the law, he said.

Butler said he thought as many as 150 of the state’s 424 school districts either extended their current contracts or reached new deals before Saturday. About 200 took no action, and another 75 or so were still considering what to do, including some that were close to a deal before Friday’s unexpected action, he said.

At least two districts — Waunakee and Belleville — signed agreements last week, he said.

At least one school district, Port Washington-Saukville, canceled a Monday night meeting scheduled to talk about a new teacher contract because it didn’t want to act with uncertainty reigning about the state of the law.

Walker has proposed more than $1 billion in cuts to schools, counties and local governments in his budget that would take effect in July. He has argued that the union concessions are needed to help make up for his proposed aid cuts.

Democrats and the unions contend that Walker’s attack on collective bargaining was politically motivated attempt to severely weaken the unions, which tend to vote Democrat.