Petitioners Ask WI Supreme Court To Accept Mask Mandate Case

Plaintiffs in the case challenging Tony Evers’s second state of emergency have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to step in after a trial court judge denied a temporary injunction to stop the order.

The case arose after Wisconsin’s governor issued a second state of emergency in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Under Wisconsin law, the Governor can call a state of emergency for up to 60 days. Governor Evers first issued a state of emergency due to COVID-19 in March, resulting in a state-wide mask mandate that went the full 60 days. He then issued another in July, which he extended 60 days via executive order in September.

The plaintiffs moved for a temporary injunction to block the emergency order, but the trial court judge denied it, finding they were unlikely to win on the facts of their complaint.

Plaintiffs now appeal the case directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking the court to take it up as an original action. The Department of Justice has filed a brief in opposition, describing the appeal as an end-run around litigation and appellate procedure.

At the same time, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Public Liberty has filed a motion for summary judgement at the trial level, arguing the recent October 12 denial of an injunction did not address the merits of all of the lawsuit’s claims.