MADISON –Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned fundamental powers bestowed on the Wisconsin Legislature to conduct oversight over unelected bureaucrats. While WMC offers no comment or opinion on the specifics of the case that prompted the overturning, we are deeply concerned about the implications and precedent the Supreme Court set today.
WMC Executive Vice President of Government Relations Scott Manley issued the following statement in response to the ruling:
“Today’s Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling takes lawmaking out of the hands of elected legislators and places it in the hands of unelected bureaucrats. It is profoundly undemocratic and unconstitutional, and is driven by politics rather than the law. By eliminating meaningful legislative oversight of lawmaking by bureaucrats, the Supreme Court has shattered any semblance of consent of the governed in our lawmaking process. The Court has empowered the unelected bureaucracy to write laws that reflect their own political agendas, rather than the will of the people through their elected representatives in the Legislature.
“The decision is terrible news for the regulated community, including businesses, because government bureaucrats do not understand the cost, practicality, economic impact, or job losses resulting from their regulation. And in many cases, they simply do not care. Worse, this ruling makes them unaccountable. History will remember this decision as a turning point away from a government of the people, by the people, and for the people to instead consolidate power in an unelected ruling class of Madison bureaucrats who lord over Wisconsinites unimpeded. Today marks the establishment of an Imperial Bureaucracy within the executive branch at the expense of representative government.”
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