The Recklessness of The Wisconsin Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned Governor Tony Evers COVID-19 stay at home order by a 4-3 vote effective immediately.

Mind you the justices made this decision while social distancing in the virtual safety of Zoom.

The Badger State has more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases with a death toll of more than 400. Look for the infection and death rate in Wisconsin to skyrocket.

It's true that some counties such as Dane (which includes the state capitol of Madison) will enact a stay at home order of their own. Ditto for Brown County where Green Bay is situated. This might mitigate any increase in the infection and fatality rates, but what about Wisconsin's 70 other counties?

The conduct of the conservative majority on the court has been appalling. As this case was being argued last week, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack was less than virtuous when she characterized meat packing workers in Brown County who have seen a spike in COVID-19 infections weren't "regular folks". Given that the county's NFL team is the Packers you don't get more "regular folks" than meat packing workers. Roggensack's remark has been viewed as racist as many of the meat packing workers are African American and Latino. At the very least, Roggensack has expressed a contempt for essential workers who are risking their lives to put food on their table and ours.

If this wasn't bad enough another conservative justice Rebecca Bradley likened Governor Evers stay at home order to the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. Where does one begin? Japanese Americans who were interned were stripped of the property. There was no home they could call their own. And Japanese Americans weren't exactly free to go outside for a walk or shop at the Piggly Wiggly. As with Stephen Moore's atrocious Rosa Parks analogy Justice Bradley is likening an order to which the entire population was subject to a policy directed towards a specific group of people in this case Japanese Americans. Bradley's argument is a classic case of apples and oranges. Or as Star Trek alumni George Takei tweeted, "I didn't spend my childhood in barbed wire enclosed internment camps so I could listen to grown adults today cry oppression because they have to wear a mask at Costco."

In making these specious arguments the Wisconsin Supreme Court has displayed a reckless disregard for human life resulting in an order which will result in the spread of disease and death. As much disease and death as there has been here in New York I am glad that I am not living in Wisconsin.