Bills · 2017-2018 Regular Session

AB 1070

Died at session end Official bill text Atom feed

Relating to: legislative powers and duties, state agency and authority composition and operations, and administrative rule-making process. (FE)

Administration, department of — Agency and general functions Administrative rules Appropriation Armory Attorney Attorney general Auction Budget bills and process Building commission, state Corrections, department of Court Court — Procedure Data processing Debt, public Economic development corporation, wisconsin Economic impact statement Elections — Registration Extraordinary session, 2018 — December Fair Floodplain management Governor Governor — Appointments Group insurance board Hearings and appeals, division of Identification cards Joint legislative council Justice, department of Legislative reference bureau Legislature Legislature — Employee Legislature — Finance, joint committee on Legislature — Legislative organization, joint committee on Legislature — Member Legislature — Procedure Legislature — Review of administrative rules, joint committee for Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Municipality — Planning Natural resources, department of — Environmental protection Pardon Parole or probation Sentences and penalties State agencies State capitol Transportation, department of — Administration United states — Army Veterans affairs, department of Voting Waterways and water power

Introduced, stopped here
Passes Assembly, not reached
Passes Senate, not reached
Governor signs, not reached
Law, not reached

Unfamiliar terms? Glossary

What this bill does

Plain-language analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill changes the Department of Justice gifts and grants appropriations

from continuing appropriations to annual appropriations.

This bill eliminates the power of the attorney general to appoint a solicitor

general and up to three deputy solicitors general, each of whom must be licensed to

practice law in this state. The effect of the bill is to eliminate the Office of the Solicitor

General in the Department of Justice, which represents the state in certain cases on

appeal in state and federal courts.

This bill requires a party that alleges that a statute is unconstitutional, or in

violation of or preempted by federal law, to serve the speaker of the assembly, the

president of the senate, and the senate majority leader with a copy of the proceeding.

The bill also requires that, in such cases, the assembly, the senate, and the Joint

Committee on Legislative Organization (JCLO) are entitled to be heard,

representing the legislature and the state.

Under current law, if a statute, ordinance, or franchise is alleged to be

unconstitutional, the attorney general must be served with a copy of the proceeding

and be entitled to be heard. This requirement exists in the statutes for declaratory

judgment acts under s. 806.04 (11). The Wisconsin Supreme Court has also extended

the requirement to other types of actions involving claims that a statute is

unconstitutional.

See

Kurtz v. City of Waukesha

, 91 Wis. 2d 103, 280 N.W.2d 757

(1979). This bill incorporates the

Kurtz

rule into the statutes and extends both the

current statutory and

Kurtz

requirements of service and an opportunity to be heard

to the legislature when a statute is alleged to be unconstitutional or in violation of

or preempted by federal law.

The bill also provides that when a party challenges the constitutionality of a

statute, facially or as applied, or challenges a statute as violating or preempted by

federal law, as part of a claim or affirmative defense, the assembly, the senate, and

JCLO have the right at any time to intervene and participate in the action and may

also retain legal counsel other than the Department of Justice. Under the bill, the

Committee on Assembly Organization may intervene in the action, as well as obtain

legal counsel, on behalf of the assembly; the Committee on Senate Organization may

What it would cost

Fiscal estimates filed by state agencies, as official PDFs

Votes

Assembly: Report Assembly Amendment 1 adoption recommended by Joint Committee on Finance, Ayes 12, Noes 4

Passed 12–4 Dec 4, 2018 official source full page

No individual roll call was recorded for this vote. Committee votes and some older sessions record totals only.

Assembly: Report passage as amended recommended by Joint Committee on Finance, Ayes 12, Noes 4