BARTLETT V. EVERS
Case Name: Nancy Bartlett v. Governor Tony Evers
Type of Case: Good Government; Partial Veto
Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Case Number: 19-AP-1376
Filed On: July 31, 2019
Current Status: The court struck down three out of the four vetoes in WILL’s original action on July 10, 2020.
Wisconsin Supreme Court: Three of Governor Evers’ Budget Vetoes Unconstitutional
July 10, 2020 | The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that three of Governor Tony Evers’ budget vetoes, challenged by WILL, were unconstitutional.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Accepts WILL Case on Governor’s Vetoes
October 17, 2019 | The Wisconsin Supreme Court granted WILL’s original action asking the Court to review Governor Evers’ use of partial vetoes.
WILL Sues Evers at Wisconsin Supreme Court Over Budget Vetoes
July 31, 2019 | The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), on behalf of three Wisconsin taxpayers, filed an original action to the Wisconsin Supreme Court asking the Court to review Governor Evers’ use of partial vetoes.
Wisconsin’s Governor has the most powerful veto pen in the country. Our Constitution allows the Governor to use a “partial veto” to strike portions of laws passed by the Legislature out of the books instead of vetoing an entire bill.
But that power is not unlimited. The veto should be used to stop a part of a new law from going into effect, but it should not be able to create a new law not envisioned by the Legislature. We believe Governor Evers abused this power in multiple ways when partially vetoing the 2019 state budget, including turning a grant program to replace school buses into funding electric vehicle charging stations and spending funds intended to fix local roads into a slush fund with virtually no restrictions on use.
On behalf of three taxpayers, we filed an original action in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking the court to review and rein in the partial veto power in order to safeguard liberty and defend the Constitution.
Watch our press conference announcing the case here.