Gov. Tony Evers on Friday announced that he is formally seeking a court order to require the Wisconsin State Legislature to follow Wisconsin state law and comply with recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions regarding the administrative rulemaking process.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a decision earlier this year in Evers v. Marklein, or “Evers II,” held that the Wisconsin State Legislature had unconstitutionally overstepped its power by attempting to legislatively veto the administrative rulemaking process and indefinitely obstructing rules from going into effect.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court deemed several statutes to be unconstitutional for allowing legislative committees to block state executive agencies from promulgating final administrative rules approved by the governor.
Consistent with the decision, Evers last month directed Wisconsin state agencies to submit rules that had made it through the relevant part of the process to the Legislative Reference Bureau for finalization and publication. In total, the Evers Administration submitted 12 administrative rules for publication that had received the governor’s approval.
However, despite Evers II, the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization directed the Legislative Reference Bureau not to publish nine of those rules, again essentially blocking the rules from taking effect despite the governor’s approval.
Evers’ lawsuit argues the Wisconsin State Legislature is continuing its attempts to legislatively veto administrative rules. The governor’s lawsuit seeks both a declaration confirming that point and an injunction ordering that the Legislative Reference Bureau must publish the nine rules the Evers Administration has already submitted and all administrative rules that are approved by the governor.
A copy of the governor’s lawsuit filing is available here.
