🚨 Wisconsin's GOP-controlled Supreme Court just struck down Governor Evers's stay-home order & gave Republicans in our state legislature veto power on responses to COVID. This is dangerous madness. THREAD on what's happening & how to fight 1/
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
Remember—during oral arguments, Rebecca Bradley, appointed by Scott Walker, compared stay-home orders to Japanese-American internment. Right-winger Pat Roggensack, who is up in 2023, said flare-ups among meat packers don't affect "regular folks."
cnn.com/2020/05/05/pol…
cnn.com/2020/05/05/pol…
Rebecca Bradley & Roggensack were joined by Annette Ziegler and, to reach their 4-vote majority, Dan Kelly—the Walker appointee who lost the Supreme Court race here on April 7, but whose term in office doesn't end until July 31. In other words, this was a lame-duck decision.
The lame-duck Supreme Court decision tonight awarded vast powers to the gerrymandering-generated GOP state legislature because of the legislature's lame-duck power grab, signed into law in 2018 by Scott Walker after he lost to @GovEvers.
Here's the nut of it: decades ago, our state leg gave WI's Department of Health Services the power to issue orders during epidemics without a formal rulemaking process. The Supreme Court struck down that law. The rub: in 2018's lame duck, the leg gave itself a veto on rulemaking.
INTERLUDE: WI Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is gunning for a supermajority in both chambers of our state legislature so that the GOP can gerrymander WI's maps for another decade. Today's horrendous decision illustrates the danger. Help us stop them—chip in: wisdems.org/donate
Republicans in Wisconsin have relentlessly and ruthlessly obstructed nearly everything Gov Evers has worked to do in Wisconsin. They torpedoed Medicaid expansion and fair maps in our state budget. They shot down action on gun violence. They forced an in-person election. Now this.
Because of the state Supreme Court's ruling, emergency public health measures are now subject to negotiation with the state legislative leaders who told people to protest in person against stay-home orders—leading to, it seems, dozens of COVID infections.
channel3000.com/72-got-covid-1…
channel3000.com/72-got-covid-1…
Republicans in Wisconsin don't have a plan. From all appearances, their goal is simply to have the governor's plan fail.
Read the searing dissent by Justice Rebecca Dallet in Wisconsin's Supreme Court decision:
As the @nytimes just posted, this is “the first successful challenge of the emergency authority of a statewide official during the pandemic.”
nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/…
nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/…
The GOP’s legislating-from-the-bench hand grenade leaves the state’s emergency response in tatters. Individual counties (go Dane!) are issuing their own orders to continue the state’s. But COVID crosses county lines.
The Tavern League of Wisconsin, a powerful interest in our state that has given 100% to the GOP this cycle, trumpets on its website, tlw.org, that thanks to the Supreme Court, bars can "OPEN IMMEDIATELY!" 
The hypocrisy here is staggering. The state Supreme Court heard this case remotely, because in-person oral arguments would be dangerous. Sort of like Robin Vos, the GOP Assembly speaker who drove this case, telling voters it was "incredibly safe"... while wearing full-body PPE.
Under @GovEvers's leadership, Wisconsin's COVID response has been remarkably effective. The state has hit 5/6 benchmarks to begin phase 1 of the #BadgerBounceBack phased reopening plan. But apparently the WI GOP couldn't stand effective government.
madison.com/wsj/news/local…
madison.com/wsj/news/local…
Remember that the biggest GOP donors in the state—billionaires whose business interests, in their view, were hurt by the COVID response—were supporting the protests here.
Wisconsin's GOP legislators now own the results of their anti-health power grab. They'll have to sign off on decisions made about how to protect the public. If you think they should listen to public health experts, not their donors, let them know: wisdems.org/call
Wisconsin's Republican legislators have literally filed more lawsuits opposing COVID response than they have passed bills assisting it. The one consistent through-line: Republicans have used the pandemic for a power grab.
Another way to send a message to Wisconsin state legislators: text WISDEMS to 50409, or DM "WISDEMS" to @resistbot—which will make sure your messages get delivered.
If you're not a Wisconsinite, help us defeat the GOP here by becoming a monthly donor. This is a long fight. We mean to win. savetheveto.com/donate
The public has been watching the Republican legislature at work as it tries to sabotage our COVID response, and it hasn't liked what it's seen. Far more trust in our governor.
For the last decade, the GOP has used Wisconsin as its petri dish—to test disastrous policies & political tactics that they then export elsewhere. No matter where you live, the nightmare Republicans inflict here may soon arrive at your door. Let's stop them in Wisconsin first.
Scott Walker’s former lawyer Brian Hagedorn dissented from the GOP majority in this case—perhaps because he remembers how state gov actually works. Walker himself? Not so much.
As Hagedorn wrote in his dissent, the SCOWIS majority leaves no clue as to how to proceed. The GOP-court has no plan. The GOP-run legislature has no plan. The closest thing they have to a plan is to undermine the governor's (highly successful) plan.
What the right-wing justices do have is deeply tendentious and frankly offensive historical analogies.
Read this—@GovEvers is mincing no words:
As @GovEvers says—"We were in a good place. We are no longer in a good place."
If you don't think Republicans should be able to leverage gerrymandered legislative district maps and judicial majorities into power to torpedo states' ability to stop coronavirus, help Wisconsin save its veto by blocking GOP supermajorities. Here: savetheveto.com/donate
CHAOS
Senator Baldwin nails it:
As Lt Gov Barnes points out, county, municipal, and tribal governments now carry an extraordinary burden—determining their own coronavirus responses, without the backup of the state of Wisconsin's authority.
Another way to help ensure that the GOP loses in Wisconsin: sign up to volunteer with the Dems. We'll give you a ton to do, no matter where you live. wisdems.org/volunteer
To truly return decency and democracy to this state, we'll need the full quadrifecta:
1. Majorities in state Assembly & Senate—by blocking supermajorities in 20, getting fairer maps post-census, & winning 22/24
2. @GovEvers reelected in 2022
3. Non-GOP majority in SCOWIS, 2023
1. Majorities in state Assembly & Senate—by blocking supermajorities in 20, getting fairer maps post-census, & winning 22/24
2. @GovEvers reelected in 2022
3. Non-GOP majority in SCOWIS, 2023
The next Supreme Court race in our state will feature Patience "Pat" Roggensack, currently Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who wrote a concurring opinion with the anti-health majority today. When we beat her in 2023, the GOP won't hold a majority on the court.
2020 is an existentially important fight, yes. But we've got to think long term, the way the GOP has been doing for a looong time. Contest every race, keep boots on the ground and eyes to the sky.
UPDATE: Milwaukee will keep its safer-at-home order in place, like Madison.
Our state legislative Republican leaders note with delight that Wisconsin now joins states that have failed to respond to coronavirus (although they don't say it quite like that):
