LeMieux v. Evers – Amicus Brief, Wisconsin Supreme Court
On September 17, the State Democracy Research Initiative filed an amicus brief on behalf of Columbia Law School Professor Richard Briffault in LeMieux v. Evers, a case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court involving the scope of the governor’s partial veto power.
Wisconsin’s Constitution allows the governor to veto “part” of an appropriations bill, an innovation designed to combat legislative logrolling and promote fiscal restraint. Although many other state constitutions include similar powers, no state has interpreted the power as broadly as Wisconsin. Wisconsin governors have used it in the past to completely rewrite provisions by crossing out individual words or characters. And in this case, the governor converted a two-year revenue limit increase into a 402-year revenue limit increase by striking a hyphen and a “20” to change “2025” to “2425.”
The amicus brief filed on behalf Professor Briffault on Tuesday argues that this use of the partial veto power exceeds the bounds of the Wisconsin Constitution. It emphasizes that the partial veto is, by design, a broad power that enables the governor to alter proposed policies and deviate from the legislature’s intent. But it also underscores that the power is not without limits—rather, the text, history, and structure of the Wisconsin Constitution confirm that the partial veto was designed to allow the governor to disaggregate measures the legislature has put together, not to craft entirely novel provisions. Further, the brief argues, this understanding accords with the underlying democratic commitments of the Wisconsin Constitution and the nationwide conception of the partial veto as a power with limits.
Staff Attorney Bryna Godar contributed to this brief.