News
January 17, 2025 | By Benjamin Yount
Policy Issues
Constitution

Wisconsin Supreme Court Hears Conversion Ban Arguments

If the liberal-majority court rules in his favor, it will be the second time this court has taken power away from the legislature in the past two years.

Wisconsin’s supreme court is once again looking at the balance of power between Governor Evers and the legislature.

The justices on Thursday heard a case about Wisconsin’s ban on conversion therapy. But the case was really about whether a legislative panel can block rules written by Governor Evers’ administration.

Liberal Justice Jill Karofsky said there’s nothing in the state constitution that says the people are to be governed by just 3% of the legislature.

“You are saying that it's okay for three or four members of the legislature to put on hold a rule that is literally saving people’s lives,” Karofsky said during the hearing.

Gov. Tony Evers’s administration wrote rules to ban conversion therapy, where counselors talk to gay people about their sexual desires, and try to get them to ‘convert.’ Many professional mental health organizations say conversion therapy is no longer considered a viable treatment.

Karofsky called it “beyond horrific.”

But the focus for the Supreme Court was not necessarily the ban on conversion therapy, but the question of who gets the final say on administrative rules.

Karofsky questioned whether the governor’s office should have the power to write those rules, and whether the legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules has the power to block those rules as they see fit.

Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley said there’s nothing in the constitution that says Governor Evers can make-up laws without taking them through the legislature first.

“Where in the constitution did the people consent to be governed by laws, by rules, by regulations promulgated by the executive branch, made by the executive branch?” she asked.

The liberal-majority court seemed to side with the governor in Thursday’s hearing.

If the liberal-majority court rules in his favor, it will be the second time this court has taken power away from the legislature in the past two years.

Interested in the content of this Article?

Reach out to the MacIver Institute to aquire more information