The Evers' Administration filed their response to the legislature's lawsuit hoping to overturn the governor's extend "Safer at Home Order." In response to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the state Attorney General Josh Kaul lays out the order for keeping the order intact.
When the suit was filed on April 21, Republicans said that legislators wanted to be part of the rulemaking process. In Tuesday's filing, Kaul wrote, "even the quickest version of rulemaking takes weeks. Compare that with the first Safer-at-Home order: it was issued in response to modeling that showed, with approximately three days' warning, Wisconsin had to act to halt the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19."
The administration said when the first order was issued, cases of COVID-19 were doubling every 3.4 days. After the "Safer at Home" order was put in place, that slowed to every 12.4 days.
In the Motion for Injunction filed by the legislature, it called the order an overreach by Secretary of Health Designee Andrea Palm. Kaul said Tuesday that in an "undisputed emergency… and unquestioned need to control a communicable disease … the statutes vest broad powers in the DHS to combat this rare statewide threat."
Tuesday's response was accompanied by legal statements from health experts and others. The Republican-led legislature has until Thursday, April 30, to respond. The Supreme Court has not said if they will hear oral arguments in the case.