Wisconsin marks one year of coronavirus emergency orders

(The Center Square) – Friday marks one year since Gov. Tony Evers issued his first coronavirus emergency order.

“One year ago, on March 12th, I declared our first statewide Public Health Emergency for COVID-19,” the governor said in his statewide radio address. “At that time there were still so many unknowns. Not only in the nature of the virus itself, but what it would mean for our families, workers and businesses, and our communities.”

Over the past year Evers has issued several emergency orders which cover everything from face masks to crowd limits to orders that closed many businesses across the state.

The governor’s use of emergency orders led to a showdown with the Republicans who run the legislature and business groups across the state.

In May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Evers’ Safer at Home order. The state’s high court heard a second case in November on just how far the governor’s emergency powers can go. They have yet to issue an opinion.

Rick Esenberg, president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, an organization that sued over the governor’s use of emergency orders, told the Center Square the one-year anniversary is a dubious one.

“At this point it’s unclear that the orders are accomplishing much,” Esenberg said. “I think we’ve learned that our statutes regarding emergency orders are in need of judicial construction to ensure their limits are respected and legislative clarification. We hope the Court will do the former and the legislature the latter.”

Evers said he is looking forward from this anniversary, but isn’t ready to bring Wisconsin out of its emergency stance regarding the coronavirus.

“As we see the road to recovery ahead of us and with federal relief funds on the way, it’s time for Wisconsin’s bounce back,” Evers said Thursday. “But we can’t just bounce back to the way things were before, we need to look forward and beyond the pandemic to build the future we want for our state.”

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