MILWAUKEE – Both Governor Evers and Legislative Republicans currently face challenges in the courts on their ability to veto, respectively.
Before the highest court in Wisconsin, Legislative Republicans are making their case to retain the ability to make vetos from the legislature. The core disagreement of the case comes from the Joint Finance Committee, which is led by Republicans 12-4, rejecting multiple conservation projects that had been selected by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Governor Evers has said their ability to reject these items oversteps the boundaries given to legislature and allows them to operate as a ‘fourth branch of government’.
UW-Milwaukee Professor of Political Science Mordecai Lee says the legislative veto is a departure from how the public typically thinks of a veto in government: “…The Governor wants to do something and the legislature vetoes it. It really turns everything upside down.”
Republicans have countered the thinking behind the Governor’s lawsuit by saying the Joint Finance Committee’s ability to veto is a legal mechanism with establishment in court precedent.
The legislative veto is not used at the federal level. The United States Supreme Court ruled it to be unconstitutional in 1983 with the case Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha. Professor Lee says he thinks the same legal logic could resurface in this lawsuit.
“(The legislative veto) reversed the standard relationship of power between the legislative branch and executive branch,” said Professor Lee. “I suspect that we’re going to be seeing a lot of that argument.”
Governor Evers, a Democrat, is making this case to a State Supreme Court which is considered to have a liberal lean. Professor Lee said he feels that both these parties coming from the same side of the political spectrum will have little to do with the end result of the case.
Partial Veto
In Dane County Circuit Court, Legislative Republicans have filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the Governor’s use of a partial veto.
The Wisconsin State Budget, signed in 2023, allocated $50 million dollars toward the Department of Public Instruction to improve reading skills in K-12 students. Governor Evers used the partial veto in February of 2024 to send that $50 million dollars to the DPI in a single allocation as opposed to multiple, smaller allocations.
Professor Lee says the law is fairly clear on what the Governor can and can’t use the partial veto on.
“The key to look at is: ‘Is this a bill to spend money or a bill that doesn’t?’,” Professor Lee said. “That tends to be the difference between when the Governor can only sign or veto a bill … or if any of that bill spends money or bonding, then the Governor has the right to exercise a partial veto for the entirety of the bill.”
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In their lawsuit, Republicans agree on the terms of when a Governor can use the partial veto but argue that the bill in question is only a “framework” for spending. Thus the partial veto is unconstitutional.
If Republicans were to win the lawsuit, Professor Lee says he thinks it could create an awkward situation politically.
“Hypothetically the state could then ask the school districts for the money back,” Professor Lee said. “But in terms of practical politics, it’s hard to imagine that anyone is going to squeeze that money back.”
