As I had reported last week, Wisconsin Republicans filed a lawsuit directly with the Wisconsin Supreme Kangaroo Court in protest of Governor Tony Evers extending his Safer At Home order due to ever escalating new cases of COVID-19 and people not following medical guidelines to minimize the spread.
The Supreme Kangaroos agreed to not only take the case but fast-tracked it to be heard Tuesday morning.
What a debacle it was!
It should be immediately noted that the Supreme Kangaroos were literally hearing and deciding a case in which thousands of Wisconsin lives hang in the balance via Zoom, because it was too unsafe for them to meet in person.
When the Attorney General's Office was finally allowed to present its case, the kangaroos didn't even allow the attorney to have 30 seconds of his introductory statement before they started interrupting him with belligerent and biased questions.
Some of the lowlights started with (In)Justice Rebecca Bradley calling the ruling an example of tyranny and comparing it the Japanese internment camps of WWII:
"Isn't it the very definition of tyranny for one person to order people to be imprisoned for going to work among other ordinarily lawful activities?" asked Justice Rebecca Bradley, who later questioned whether the administration could use the same power to order people into centers akin to the U.S. government's treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
When the state's attorney pointed out the sudden and huge spikes in new cases in Brown and Milwaukee Counties as examples of why the order needed to be extended, Chief (In)Justice Patience Roggensack dismissed it with a flippant bit of racism:
Roth noted while the majority of cases were once in Madison and Milwaukee, Brown County now has the second-highest number of cases — a change that occurred within a couple weeks.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack dismissed the idea that the outbreak was community-wide and could be replicated elsewhere.
"(The surge) was due to the meatpacking — that's where Brown County got the flare," Roggensack said. "It wasn't just the regular folks in Brown County."
Most of the employees of these meatpacking plants are minorities, which Roggensack basically said weren't regular people.
Officials in Brown County were quick to point out that it is affecting all the people:
Even with the microscope on food processing plants, Brown County officials have emphasized that those facilities aren't solely driving the increase in cases.
Claire Paprocki of Brown County Health and Human Services said the recent uptick stems in part from people who don't practice social distancing, show up to work sick or continue to gather with family and friends.
Another egregious moment came when Justice Rebecca Dallet objected to recently voted out (In)Justice Dan Kelly continuously interrupting the state's attorney. Kelly gave her complaint an offhanded dismissal and included a nasty bit of condescending misogyny by referring to Dallet as "Mrs. Dallet" instead of her proper title of Justice Dallet, just like he would demand to be addressed as.
One major underreported part of this shitshow were all the parties that filed a Friend of the Court briefs in favor or in opposition of the safer at home order:
The court allowed arguments only by Roth and Walsh. A number of other groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs favoring or opposing a ruling stopping enforcement of “safer at home.” The Legislature’s position is supported by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, hunting and fishing groups, and the Wisconsin Tavern League, among others.
Opposing the Legislature’s request are the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards; the Wisconsin Public Health Association; the Wisconsin Nurses Association; a coalition of state community, advocacy, labor and membership organizations; Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice; and several other groups.
All the groups wanting the order dismissed are the same special interests that the five conservative justices are beholden to and are only interested in money.
In favor of the letting the order stand are the front line health care providers, you know, the ones that actually know and care about what's going on and want to preserve lives.
Frankly, I'm in fear for the people of Wisconsin. All indications make it seem likely that the Supreme Kangaroos will put the interests of their dark money overlords over the lives of the people, and strike down the safety nets. Then we will end up just like Texas, where they have seen thousands of new cases each day, after a partial reopening.
