Two weeks since the
Wisconsin Supreme Court granted a Republican application to strike down the Democratic governor's lockdown order the Cheese State is reaping what they have sown.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a statewide coronavirus stay-at-home order on Wednesday, siding with a legal challenge from Republican lawmakers who said the state’s top public health official exceeded her authority by imposing the restrictions.
While lockdown orders meant to quell the pandemic have been challenged in court in several states, the decision in Wisconsin marked the first such lawsuit to succeed in a larger political debate over social distancing that has grown increasingly partisan.
At stake in Wisconsin was a “Safer at Home” order that had been extended through May 26 by the state’s secretary for the Department of Health Services, Andrea Palm, acting at the direction of Governor Tony Evers.
Today
the people of Wisconsin are paying for that GOP hubris.
Health officials in the midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases Thursday, two weeks after the state Supreme Court struck down a state-wide stay-at-home order issued by the governor and enacted by the state health department.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 599 new known COVID-19 cases Wednesday, with 22 known deaths, the highest recorded daily rise since the pandemic began. The department reports the state had more than 16,460 known cases and 539 known deaths as of Wednesday.
The previous state record number of new coronavirus cases was 528 a week earlier.
Now, another victim, the
2020 Wisconsin State Fair. Cancelled.
The Wisconsin State Fair was canceled Thursday due to the coronavirus pandemic, marking the first time since 1945 that the 169-year-old annual tradition will not take place.
The move was widely expected given the cancellation of state fairs across the country and most major events, including Summerfest in Milwaukee. The fair, scheduled for August in West Allis, attracts more than a million people who down cream puffs, ride roller coasters, check out 4-H exhibits and take in concerts over its 11-day run.
Well played, Republicans.
13 comments:
Of course, as you know Mound, there is always a cost to be paid for freedom (of the individual, that is). Denying not only the sciences of creation, evolution, physics, sociology (ht Stephen Harper), climate change and just about everything else being pursued by thinkers, they also deny with zeal the idea that humans are a social species. Tearing down abject reality is all they breathe for, anymore. And the more unreal it gets, the better. They don't even need a Netflix subscription to watch the drama.
Hey, Brian. This summer could see us wipe out all the gains we made through 10-weeks of quarantine. Instead of taking small, cautious steps it's in our nature, or at least a sufficiently large segment of us, to put ourselves and our desires ahead of the welfare of the community.
There is a theory that we don't bump into little green men strolling our sidewalks because intelligent life is inherently self-extinguishing. I wish we didn't seem bent on testing that theory.
Well, it is all part of a piece in the U.S., sin't it, Mound? I was watching the American news tonight, and there was a story about Texas bars that are posting notices forbidding the wearing of masks.
Live Free or Die. A truly fitting epitaph for 'Murica, eh?
Cheeseheads for the win! That'll thin the ranks of formerly healthy adults, with no side effects beyond reduced lung and organ capacity after they're "recovered" from a bout of nothing but flu, 'coz we all know Covid-19 is a put-up commie job and nothing to worry about. 'Twas nothing, quoth Boris the Bozo as he stumbles around in a haze looking dishevelled and quite unwell defending another self-interested individual, his chief of staff Cummings who broke the rules.
BM
The court's majority decision flies in the face of clear statutory language giving public health authorities the right to order the measures they did. This is what happens when judges abandon impartiality and see their job as legalizing the policies of the party that appointed them.
And we're going to see a lot more decisions like this as Moscow Mitch stacks the courts with rabid Federalist partisans, many rated unqualified by the ABA. It's what Harper tried to do here with the botched appointment of Marc Nadon to the SCC. Never forget that everything Hitler did was legal according to the German courts. That's where the US is headed.
Cap
Cap, if it's not giving away too much, in which courts do you practice? I used to do BCSC and BCCA. Never had a case that went to the SCC.
Thanks for your answer, Cap. I won't post your info but, you know, birds of a feather.
I think we're in for a New Years Eve like none other, Lorne, as we recap the turmoil of Covid-19. One way or the other, we'll probably be a changed society as December 31 winds down. I'm really hoping the pandemic is the only seismic shock we'll have to cope with in 2020.
BM, what began as a public health crisis has morphed into an economic punching bag with Culture War overtones. There are multiple agendas in play at the moment which may ensure that we fail on all of them.
Cap, I agree about the collapse of justice in America's judicial system. No time for Themis there with her blindfold, her upraised hand holding the scales of justice and in her other hand the sword of justice. It's tragic. All three co-equal branches of government now deeply corrupted. I wonder what the odds are of America, as we once knew it, being restored. I think this has gone too far.
Anytime, Mound. I enjoy your take on things and hope you'll keep blogging.
Cap
Mound, the corruption in this case is far worse than initially reported. There was a second case challenging the Safer at Home order launched by one Jere Fabick. Fabick donates to all sorts of right-wing causes and is on the board of the climate denying Heartland Institute. He also donated the maximum $20,000 to Justice Rebecca Bradley's campaign in 2016. Justice Bradley was part of the Republican majority to strike down the public health order in the first case. This rendered the second case moot along with her massive conflict of interest. But get this... Under court rules, judges aren't required to recuse themselves from cases involving campaign donors! The whole system is rotten to the core.
More here: https://www.wisdc.org/news/press-releases/131-press-release-2020/6636-conservative-justice-got-20k-contribution-from-individual-in-second-stay-at-home-suit
Cap
I had no idea, Cap. Isn't that Tammany-grade rot? And it was a 4-3 decision, presumably a party-line verdict? How do they ever come back from this? I'm getting the sense this fight was lost some time ago.
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