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SCOWIS Blocks Legislature from Suspending Rules
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has once again sided with the governor’s office in a battle with lawmakers.
The liberal-majority court on Tuesday ruled that the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules overstepped its bounds when it twice blocked an administrative rule from the state's Department of Safety and Professional Services that deals with conversion therapy.
DSPS banned conversion therapy, but lawmakers blocked the ban citing First Amendment questions.
The court, however, mostly focused its ruling on the balance of power between lawmakers and the executive branch.
"The bicameralism and presentment requirements of the Wisconsin Constitution cabin the Legislature’s otherwise vast lawmaking powers," liberal Justice Jill Karofsky wrote for the majority. "Legislative action that alters the legal rights and duties of persons outside of the legislative branch triggers the requirements of these constitutional mandates."
Conservative Justice Annette Ziegler wrote in her dissent that the liberal-majority is continuing its "misguided quest to restructure and unbalance our state government.”
Fellow conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley took it a step further.
“If the courts continue to consent to the redistribution of constitutional powers between the branches, then all constitutional provisions are susceptible to revision by the government, and the governed have lost their ability to govern themselves.”
Gov. Evers, who supported the conversion therapy ban, and brought the lawsuit that ended-up before the high court, celebrated on Tuesday.
“In a lawsuit I brought against the Legislature years ago, [the Wisconsin Supreme Court] decided that a handful of Republican lawmakers cannot single-handedly and indefinitely obstruct our state agencies from doing the people’s work,” Evers wrote on X. “A victory for Wisconsinites.”
Tuesday’s ruling is just the latest from the liberal-majority court that takes power away from the legislature.
The court already ruled this summer that Gov. Evers’ 400-year school funding veto can stand, and just last month the court ruled that Wisconsin’s A-G doesn’t need legislative permission to settle lawsuits.
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