Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) is a conservative law firm located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that says it is "dedicated to the promotion of free markets, individual liberty, and a robust civil society."[1][2] The group was founded by lawyer Rick Esenberg in 2011.[3] The group has filed lawsuits seeking to purge registered Wisconsin voters from voter rolls, and to stop Wisconsin from implementing a face mask mandate during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty
Formation2011
Location
MethodsPublic interest law
President & General Counsel
Rick Esenberg
Websitewww.will-law.org

Lawsuits

The organization has defended right-to-work laws.[4]

In 2016, WILL announced the launch of the Center for Competitive Federalism, a national effort to bring lawsuits and conduct research to promote state sovereignty.[5] That same year, the organization filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, also known as the minimum markup law, which prevents companies from selling products below cost.[6][7] In 2017, it filed a lawsuit in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Koschkee v. Taylor arguing that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) issued regulations without the approval of the state's governor and the Wisconsin Department of Administration, thus violating the REINS Act. It was seen as an attempt to limit the power of Governor Tony Evers, then the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Though Evers's role was nonpartisan, he had announced he would challenge Republican Scott Walker for the governorship.[8] In June 2019, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in favor of WILL, determining that DPI could not make administrative rules without approval of the governor.[9]

In 2019, WILL petitioned Paul V. Malloy, the presiding circuit court judge in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin,[10][11] to remove 234,000 voters from the statewide rolls. The judge ruled in favor of WILL, purging the voters.[12] The WDC filed suit in federal court to halt the contested purging.[13][14] Acting on behalf of the state's Elections Commission which experienced a 3-3 split on the matter, Josh Kaul, Wisconsin's Attorney General, joined the appeal to stay Malloy's removals.[15] The Elections Commission estimated that the voter verification process would take from one to two years to complete prior to initiating any action to remove those former voters, the accuracy of whose registrations still remained unresolved.[16] Despite the lack of sufficient evidence for removal of that extraordinary number of qualified voters, the state could be forced to comply with Malloy's order.[17] On January 2, 2020, WILL said it asked the circuit court to hold the Elections Commission in contempt, fining it up to $12,000 daily, until it advanced Malloy's December 17, 2019 order to remove from the rolls, registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters who might have moved to a different address. The case was being heard in a state appeals court, but it was presumed that the conservative-dominated Wisconsin Supreme Court could be expected to support Malloy's ruling.[18] The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard the case about the purging of the voter rolls on October 4, 2020, but was not expected to make a decision before the November election.[19]  

The purge was construed to be targeting voters living in the cities of Madison, and Milwaukee, and other University of Wisconsin System and private college towns, which all tended to favor Democrats.[13][14] Of the three named plaintiffs in the case, two were significant contributors to state Republican Party candidates' campaigns, including David W. Opitz who had represented the county in the legislature.[13][14] Reporter and author Greg Palast associated the Wisconsin effort at voter purging as conforming to a national Republican Party strategy which had attracted international attention.[20] On January 12, 2020, Malloy found the three Democrats on the stalemated six-member Elections Commission to be in contempt of court, ordering them each to pay a fine of $250 daily until they complied with his order. Malloy demanded its urgent implementation of his order, saying, "We're deadlocked, time is running and time is clearly of the essence."[21] The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examined the list of voters subject to being purged because they were presumed to have moved and found that about 55 percent of those registrants had been domiciled in municipalities that had been won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election. Those were mainly from Wisconsin's largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, as well as other college towns.[22] In 2016, Trump had carried Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes. After the contempt order was issued by Malloy, a stay issued later that day by the state Supreme Court upheld his purge mandate.[22] That finding was subsequently reversed by an appeals court, but WILL appealed its decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[23] In the April 7, 2020 election, voters, by an unusually large margin of 120,000 votes, ousted incumbent Daniel Kelly, a conservative Supreme Court justice, who had been appointed by Governor Scott Walker. Kelly had been thought to be a possible swing vote in the Court's deciding the case.[24]

In September 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, WILL filed lawsuits to stop a face mask mandate in Wisconsin.[25] Governor Evers has issued orders extending those mandates from November 18, 2020, through mid-January, 2021.[26]

References
  1. "About Us". Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  2. "Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty's file". PolitiFact. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  3. Elbow, Steven (May 19, 2013). "Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty takes on 'cause lawyering' from the right". The Capital Times. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  4. Russell, Jason (June 23, 2016). "Scott Walker's union reforms didn't harm Wisconsin schools". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  5. Henschel, Haley (July 11, 2016). "Conservative legal group announces states' rights initiative". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  6. Johnson, Shawn (August 23, 2016). "Conservative Group Sues To Overturn Minimum Markup Law". Wisconsin Public Radio. National Public Radio. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  7. Cassens Weiss, Debra (August 24, 2016). "Suit challenges Wisconsin's minimum markup law". American Bar Association Journal. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  8. Yackee, Susan Webb (2019). "The Politics of Rulemaking in the United States". Annual Review of Political Science. 22: 37–55. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-050817-092302.
  9. Forward, Joe (25 June 2019). "Supreme Court Reverses Course on Governor's Power Over School Rulemaking". State Bar of Wisconsin. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  10. Wisconsin Courts - Judges, State of Wisconsin. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  11. Judge Profile: Hon. Paul V. Malloy, Martindale-Hubbell. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  12. Wisconsin judge orders removal of 234,000 voters from state registry, FOX6Now, Amy Dupont, December 13, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  13. Matthew Rothschild: Elections Commission is right to hold off on voter purge, The Cap Times, Matthew Rothschild, December 19, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  14. Wisconsin Judge Says State Must Purge 200,000 Voter Registrations, Journal Sentinel, December 13, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  15. Effort to stop removal of 234K voter registrations heads to federal court, while attorney general tries to stall purge in state court, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bruce Vielmetti and Molly Beck, December 17, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  16. Nearly 900 Lincoln County voters affected, Tomahawk Leader, Jalen Maki, December 27, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  17. How a Conservative Group Persuaded a Judge to Purge Wisconsin’s Voter Rolls, Slate Magazine, Mark Joseph Stern, December 16, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  18. Vetterkind, Riley (2 January 2020). "Conservative legal group alleges Elections Commission in contempt of court". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
  19. WisEye Morning Minute: Supreme Court Hears Voter Roll Purge Case, WPR, September 29, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  20. Hunting Season on Voters Opens with Georgia and Wisconsin Purges and Registration Cancellation, The Guardian, Greg Palast and Zach D. Roberts, January 2, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  21. Wisconsin Elections Officials Held in Contempt for Refusing to Purge Voters, New York Times, January 13, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  22. Wisconsin Elections Officials Held in Contempt for Refusing to Purge Voters, New York Times, Mitch Smith, January 13, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  23. State Court of Appeals reverses Wisconsin voter purge, The Daily Cardinal, Amani Omari, March 2, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  24. Upset Victory in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Gives Democrats a Lift, New York Times, April 13, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  25. "Conservative law firm seeks to end Wisconsin mask order". Channel3000.com. 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  26. Gov. Tony Evers extends Wisconsin face mask mandate into 2021, WISN, Nick Bohr, November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
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