{"id":564223,"date":"2021-06-15T10:21:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T14:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=564223"},"modified":"2021-06-15T10:21:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T14:21:56","slug":"wisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-local-health-officials-closing-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-local-health-officials-closing-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Local Health Officials Closing Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-local-health-officials-closing-schools%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=564223&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1282723854-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>On Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that local health officers do not have the statutory power to close schools.<\/p>\n<p>As detailed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wicourts.gov\/sc\/opinion\/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&#038;seqNo=376845\">ruling<\/a>, in March 2020, Wisconsin Democrat Governor Tony Evers declared a public health emergency in Wisconsin. The next day, then Secretary-Designee of the Department of Health Services (DHS), Andrea Palm, issued an order mandating \u201cthe closure of all public and private Wisconsin schools for purposes of [in-person] instruction and extracurricular activities.\u201d On March 24, 2020, Palm issued a statewide \u201cSafer at Home Order,\u201d which closed \u201cpublic and private K-12 schools . . . for [in-person] instruction and extracurricular activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 13, 2020, Madison and Dane County Public Health Officer Janel HeinrichHeinrich issued Emergency Order #1, which \u201cadopted the provisions\u201d contained in the \u201cSafer at Home Order,\u201d including the mandate closing schools. On May 18, 2020, Heinrich issued Emergency Order #2, which expressly reiterated that public and private K-12 schools must stay closed for in-person instruction, but allowed them to provide \u201c[d]istance learning or virtual learning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Heinrich issued a series of executive orders, one from June 2020 reopening K-12 schools for \u201cpupil instruction and extracurricular activities\u201d effective July 1, 2020, then another on July 7, 2020, delineating a series of safety protocols, on August 21, 2020, three days before the start of the 2020-21 school year for many schools, Heinrich released Emergency Order #9, citing Wis. Stat. \u00a7 252.03 (2017-18) as an authority. The order closed all public and private schools for in-person instruction for students in grades 3-12.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs argued that Heinrich exceeded her statutory authority under \u00a7 252.03 and violated their fundamental right to the free exercise of religion under Article I, Section 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution, as well as parents\u2019 fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children under Article I, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The court stated: \u201cWe agree with the Petitioners and hold: (1) local health officers do not have the statutory power to close schools under Wis. Stat. \u00a7 252.03; and (2) Heinrich\u2019s Order infringes the Petitioners\u2019 fundamental right to the free exercise of religion guaranteed under Article I, Section 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution\u2026 Accordingly, those portions of the Order restricting or prohibiting in-person instruction are unlawful, unenforceable, and are hereby vacated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Justice Rebecca Bradley stated, \u201cWhat is reasonable and necessary cannot be reasonably read to encompass anything and everything. Nothing in the text of the statute confers upon local health officers the power to close schools. To conclude otherwise would be tantamount to striking language from the statute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBradley further asserted that Heinrich\u2019s decision, by her own admission, was unnecessary to curb the spread of COVID-19,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/2021\/06\/wisconsin-supreme-court-rules-madison-and-dane-county-public-healths-school-closure-order-unlawful-unenforceable\/\">MacIver Institute<\/a> noted. She wrote, \u201cThe Order acknowledged that a \u2018number of systematic reviews have found that school-aged children contract COVID at lower rates than older populations\u2019 and that \u2018[o]utbreaks and clusters among cases aged 5-17 have been rare.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Order failed to explain why college-aged students could continue to live, learn, and socialize in close communities, while students in grades 3-12 were consigned to computer screens. While the Order demonstrates the availability of less restrictive alternatives and employs them for college students as well as students in grades K-2, the Order denies them to students in grades 3-12,\u201d Bradley added.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that local health officers do not have the statutory power to close schools.As detailed in the ruling, in March 2020, Wisconsin Democrat Governor &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280307,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1282723854-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Local Health Officials Closing Schools","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1282723854-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Local Health Officials Closing Schools","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}