Last Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4-3 to uphold the authority of local public health departments to institute public health orders such as those made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, the state’s high court ruled that Public Health of Madison and Dane County, or PHMDC, was justified in issuing orders such as mask mandates and indoor gathering limits. And the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that PHMDC could do so without the oversight of local governments.
This case was taken up following a lawsuit filed by two Dane County residents along with A Leap Above Dance, a dance studio located in the town of Oregon. The dance studio joined the other plaintiffs after fines were levied against them for failing to comply with health orders during a December 2020 performance of the Nutcracker.
The original lawsuit sought a temporary injunction of the health orders, but this was dismissed by Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jacob B. Frost, citing that state law does not preempt local bodies’ health orders from being enforced.
In his concurring opinion, Justice Brian Hagedorn cites past occasions, some dating back to Wisconsin’s early days, in which local health officials have issued orders. He expresses his view that the dissenting opinion focuses on criticizing the county for fining A Leap Above Dance for its various infringements of the health orders. He notes that the case before the court focused on whether Public Health of Madison and Dane County could enact and enforce any orders.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi welcomed the decision.
“It means that our public health department can continue to respond to public health emergencies in a deliberate and science-based fashion, do what they need to do when they need to do it, and be able to do it based on what is medically in the best interests of the public,” said the county executive.
He added that other counties may have pursued similar measures if not for legal threats.
“You know we’re really glad it went this way. I think more communities around the state probably would have enacted health orders themselves who didn’t, but a lot of them were afraid of getting sued like we did. But our folks stuck with it, we said we have the right to do this, and this is what’s in the best interests of the public, and we moved forward with it.”
The dissenting opinion was written by Justice Rebecca Bradley. She argues that the county could not delegate this authority to PHMDC. With regards to the director of PHMDC, Janel Heinrich, Justice Bradley described Heinrich’s issuance of health orders as “tyranny,” and the orders themselves as “oppressive.” She concluded the argument by quoting the lyrics of the Coldplay song Viva La Vida, saying that “[s]eas would rise when [Heinrich] gave the word” and that, without constitutional foundation, Heinrich’s authority “stand[s] upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.”
Lawyers from the Wisconsin Institute For Law and Liberty provided counsel for the plaintiffs. They could not be reached for comment.
Image courtesy: TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay
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