Monday, May 15, 2023

Covid Chronicles. Chapter 39: Wisconsin Supreme Court Lapdogs

 
Read chapter 38 here

Friday, May 15, 2020 


The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently overturned Governor Tony Evers’ ‘safer-at-home’ order. The vote was 4-3, with one of the five conservative justices siding with the two liberal justices. The vote was not unexpected, as the conservative majority has served as lapdogs for Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Manufacturer and Commerce, the state’s largest business organization, whose lobbyists are all former GOP legislative aides in the state capitol. Last year, the court sided with the Republican legislature, allowing a lame-duck session power grab to limit the powers of a Democratic Governor and Attorney General to stand. 



The result, of course, has been chaos – every county and municipality for itself. About a dozen of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and 1 city (Racine) quickly issued ‘safer-at-home’ orders of their own. In the meantime, we have situations like what occurred at a Platteville bar in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin – people packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a bar, not wearing masks. Socializing in a petri dish for infection. Grant County may not be a hot spot, but it has a higher rate of positive COVID cases per 100,000 than Dane County. People have either lulled themselves into a false sense of security or they’re just plain dumb.

Read chapter 40 here

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