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44 St. & Loc. L. News 1 (2020-2021)

handle is hein.journals/stlolane44 and id is 1 raw text is: Vol. 44, No. 1, Summer/Fall 2020 STATE& LOCAL LAW The Section serves as a collegialforum for its members, the profession, and the public to provide leadership and educational resources in urban, state, and local government law and policy. How the Wisconsin Legislature Reopened the State with a Mundane Legal Theory By Lane Ruhland OVID-19 not only has wreaked havoc on our coun- try's population and economy, but it also has kept lawyers quite busy, especially in Wisconsin. Wis- consin's legislative and executive branches certainly do not see eye to eye on policy matters with a democratic governor and republican-controlled legislature, and that tenuous relationship has been strained further by contin- ual confrontations in court, only increased by the presence of the pandemic. For example, the Wisconsin legislature has defended against numerous challenges to Wisconsin's election administration brought by outside groups as well as when the governor attempted to reschedule Wisconsin's spring election due to the pandemic. Thus far, the legisla- ture has been successful in these cases. Perhaps the most tense confrontation came in the legislature's challenge to Lane Ruhland is special counselfor the Madison, Wis., office of Husch Blackwell LLP She represented the Wisconsin state legislature in Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm. Ruhland enjoys helping clients navigate the intersection of law, politics, and media awareness. She understands that due diligence in this legal sector must go beyond compliance and encompass campaign image. In addition to afocus on campaign finance matters, her career has centered on navigating the complex administrative rulemaking process, which has given her a unique knowledge of where administrative law and legislative matters align. the authority of the governor's cabinet secretary, Andrea Palm, in Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm.2 Like many other states, in spring 2020, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), through Emer- gency Order No. 283 (commonly known as the Safer at Home order), required all individuals within the state to stay at home, with some broad exceptions. For example, you could leave your home for certain emergency care, or to travel to your workplace, only if your line of work was deemed essential. The order broadly defined work that was essential and that which was not. Any business that claimed to be essential could contact the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) to make the case, after which DWD, using obscure criteria, then would decide. The strict limitations on travel and the unilateral deter- mination of which businesses were essential caused great consternation among many in Wisconsin, including the legislature. There was concern not only with the economic impact of the order but also with the precedent of allow- ing one individual, unaccountable to the electorate, to issue continued on page 13 - Chair's Message, page 3 - Section News -2020-21 Section Leadership, page 2 -ABA Virtual Annual Meeting Wrap-Up: Free CLE Credit Available, Resolutions Adopted, page 4 -Law Student Awards, page 7 -Writing Competition Announced, page 10 -Jefferson Fordham Award Winners, page 11 -2020 Virtual Fall Conference, October 26-30,2020, page 12 - Member News, page 10 - How the Wisconsin Legislature Reopened the State with a Mundane Legal Theory, page 1 - Native American Law Update, page 5 - ABA Stands with Law School Graduates in the Midst of the Pandemic, page 6 - Defying Great Odds-Mitigating Property Loss Through Historic Partition Law Reform in the U.S., page 8 Published in State & Local Law News, Volume 44, Number 1, Summer/Fall 2020. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association. AEA AMERioANBRPA oATioN 1

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