Gov. Tony Evers praised the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 5-2 decision in his favor in Evers v. Marklein II, a case Evers brought in 2023 against the Wisconsin Legislature to stop what he called “Republican obstruction.”
The case argued that Republican-controlled committees such as the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules were unconstitutionally and unlawfully obstructing basic government functions and operations by “indefinitely or temporarily blocking or suspending administrative rules.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that statutes giving a legislative committee the power to pause, object to, or suspend administrative rules for varying lengths of time, both before and after promulgation, are “facially unconstitutional.”
Evers said the ruling protects constitutional checks and balances and ensures that no small groups of lawmakers has the power to stymie the work of state government and go unchecked in doing so.
“For years, a small group of Republican lawmakers overstepped their power, holding rules hostage without explanation or action and causing gridlock across state government,” Evers said. “It’s pretty simple — a handful of Republican lawmakers should not be able to single-handedly and indefinitely obstruct state agencies from doing the people’s work.”
Republicans have argued the Legislature has an oversight role when it comes to the executive branch’s implementation of laws, including agency decisions regarding administrative rules and state expenditures.
They cited statutory provisions that allow legislative committees such as the Joint Committee on Finance to review and potentially block the implementation of administrative rules.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the statewide chamber of commerce, criticized the ruling, saying the court overturned fundamental powers bestowed on the Wisconsin Legislature to conduct oversight over unelected bureaucrats.
“Today’s Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling takes lawmaking out of the hands of elected legislators and places it in the hands of unelected bureaucrats,” WMC Executive Vice President of Government Relations Scott Manley said in a statement. “It is profoundly undemocratic and unconstitutional, and is driven by politics rather than the law.
“By eliminating meaningful legislative oversight of lawmaking by bureaucrats, the Supreme Court has shattered any semblance of consent of the governed in our lawmaking process,” Manley said. “The court has empowered the unelected bureaucracy to write laws that reflect their own political agendas, rather than the will of the people through their elected representatives in the Legislature.”
