My column for the Washington County Daily News is online. Here’s a part:
The court acted with good reason, for if a governor were permitted to rule in a permanent state of emergency, then the state Constitution is meaningless, and elections no longer matter. Governor Evers disagreed with the policy decisions of the Legislature, so he resorted to continually reissuing emergency declarations to enact his policy choices. In this case, Governor Evers was acting from behind the mask of compassion and claiming that only he knows the “science” that will save us all.
Despots, however, never rise to power by telling the people that they will strip them of their civil liberties and crush them under the boot of oppression. Despots always rise to power with the promise to protect the people from something like a foreign aggressor, internal strife, or, in this case, a disease. Despots claim that normal government is not sufficient to respond to this unprecedented apocalyptic crisis, so normal government must be suspended in favor of the nimble and extensive power of autocratic rule.
[…]
First, the Supreme Court waited far too long to issue its ruling. The original petition happened on October 15, 2020, and oral arguments were heard on November 16, 2020. The court waited until March 31, 2021 to issue its ruling. That is almost half a year between the petition of the court and the court’s ruling. In a case in which the state Constitution has been suspended while a rogue governor issues orders from behind a permanent state of emergency, the people of Wisconsin have a right to expect more expeditious action from their elected Supreme Court justices. They are elected to make rulings on important issues facing the state and their sloth smacks of snobbery.
Second, the ruling was decided by a single vote with four justices voting in the majority and three in the minority. The law is crystal clear in this case and yet three of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court justices supported the governor being able to suspend normal government forever by continually issuing emergency declarations. Wisconsin is on the razor’s edge of slipping into autocracy with almost half the court cheering for it. That should keep every freedom-loving Wisconsinite up at night.
Good thing Court was there to stop these liberal authoritarians.
Nord is disgusted by court stopping liberal dictatorial dreams.
The 3 liberals got their law degrees from Cracker Jack University.
>The 3 liberals got their law degrees from Cracker Jack University.
Alums with The King of the Idiots and his GED.
The final indignity is that Brian “Anthony Kennedy Jr.” Hagedorn waited almost a full 60 days after Ev…er…Gau crossed his line and ignored the clear repudiation of the perma-“emergency” by the Legislature. What if the vaccines not been available to the general public until May Day or later? Would he have continued to slow-roll things to allow another month or more of a perma-“emergency” in direct contravention of the Legislature?
“The original petition happened on October 15, 2020, and oral arguments were heard on November 16, 2020. The court waited until March 31, 2021 to issue its ruling. That is almost half a year between the petition of the court and the court’s ruling. ”
Or to put it in Ever’s terms, it was about three extra emergencies.