Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules ‘Unilateral’ Extension of Executive Lockdown Order is Unlawful
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled three to four Wednesday that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s administration had no authority to extend a coronavirus stay-at-home order to the end of May, Fox News reports. Evers’ executive order was due to end on April 24, but Health Secretary Andrea Palm extended it to May 26. After Republicans filed suit, the Court found the extension amounted to an emergency rule which Palm had no power to enact unilaterally.
On April 21, Republicans asked the Supreme Court to block the extension on the grounds that it constitutes an administrative rule requiring legislative approval, Fox News reported. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack agreed, saying: “Rule-making exists precisely to ensure that kind of controlling, subjective judgment asserted by one unelected official, Palm, is not imposed in Wisconsin,” Roggensack said.
In a May 11 statement announcing the lock-down extension, Evers said Wisconsin was beginning to see the results of the Safer at Home Order he issued on March 25. The governor explained Wisconsin was forecast to have between 440 to 1500 coronavirus deaths by April 8, but the state had suffered only 99 deaths by that time.
Accordingly, Evers stated: “We will continue to work with local health departments to develop capacity to implement effective containment strategies across the state. Relaxing the order before those measures are in place would be expected to result in a surge of cases.”
As of Monday, Wisconsin had 12,543 cases of coronavirus and 453 deaths.
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