MADISON, WI (WSAU) – Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm issued a letter with ‘fill in the blank’ emergency orders that counties could use in the hours after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a statewide ‘Safer at Home’ order.
The allegation comes in a legal brief filed Friday afternoon in a separate lawsuit that challenges restrictions on constitutional grounds. That lawsuit was filed last week by private citizens Jere Fabick and Larry Chapman. Their court filing claims Palm began contacting city and county health departments immediately after the Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday, enabling identical emergency orders to be put into place in certain parts of the state. The lawsuit notes that Dane County enacted the entire text of the state’s order which has just been stuck down by the court. Other cities and counties modified the state’s order, and some have issued no local restrictions.
The petition asks the court to strike down the remaining local orders that restrict travel, the freedom to assemble, and the freedom to practice religion.
The Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling on Wednesday said the state health department’s emergency order amounted to rules that need to be reviewed by the legislature. The separate Fabick-Chapman lawsuit says that county and local emergency orders violate rights protected under the state constitution.
Some cities and counties have lifted their own emergency orders on Friday. Brown County, which dropped restrictions on Friday, was advised by their Corporation Council that the county’s rules would be unlikely to survive a legal challenge.
The state has not responded to the latest filing in the case.
The state Supreme Court hasn’t decided yet if they will hear the case.
