Wisconsin justices consider scaling back Evers’ veto powers

MADISON, Wis. — An attorney for a conservative law firm urged the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday to rein in the governor’s expansive partial veto powers, arguing the chief executive’s ability to rewrite state law tramples on the separation of powers with the Legislature. Rick Esenberg, the institute’s president and general counsel, complained to the justices during oral arguments that the governor’s partial veto powers have reduced the state budget to “a game of Scrabble.” He said the powers were intended to simply allow the governor approve or disapprove of the Legislature’s proposals, not twist them into new statutes. Evers’ attorney, Assistant Attorney General Colin Roth, countered that Wisconsin residents decided on appropriate limits on partial veto powers when they adopted constitutional amendments in 1990 and 2008 that prohibited the governor from crossing out individual letters to form new words and combining parts of sentences to create a new sentence. Justice Daniel Kelly called the governor’s partial veto powers “a significant transformation of legislative authority.” “Where is ‘veto’ defined as the power to create?” asked Justice Rebecca Bradley.