In a major victory for anti-lockdown advocates, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Governor Tony Evers’ (D-Wisc.) attempt at extending the statewide stay-at-home order, as reported by Breitbart.
The court ruled in a narrow 4-3 decision on Wednesday that when Evers attempted to extend the lockdown by another month, he was overstepping his constitutional boundaries by doing so without consulting the legislature. Both houses of the state legislature are controlled by the Republican Party.
As a result of the ruling, the state of Wisconsin is unofficially reopened for business on a statewide basis. However, the ruling does allow local governments such as counties to impose their own rules in the absence of a statewide mandate.
Evers angrily denounced the decision in a conference call, falsely accusing the Republicans of “convincing four members of the state Supreme Court to throw the state into chaos.” He also falsely claimed that “They have no plan” for reopening, and that if the disease spikes again in the state, “Republicans own that.”
In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack wrote that state health secretary Andrea Palm’s order involved making a decision that she did not have the power to make on her own. “Rule-making exists,” Justice Roggensack explained, “precisely to ensure that kind of controlling subjective judgement asserted by one unelected official, Palm, is not imposed in Wisconsin.”
With Wisconsin now forced to reopen, the vast majority of states in the country have already either partially reopened or are set to reopen this week, with most adhering to a deadline of early- or mid-May. The only states that currently remain locked down indefinitely are California, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.