Bills · 2017-2018 Regular Session

SB 884

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

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Introduced, completed
Passes Senate, completed
Passes Assembly, completed
Governor signs, completed
Law, completed

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

Suspending the rules (to take a vote immediately) needs a two-thirds majority — a higher bar than passing the bill, which needs a simple majority. That's why a suspension motion can show more Ayes than the passage vote that follows it. Glossary

Assembly: SUSPEND RULES FOR THIRD READING

Passed 58–26 Dec 4, 2018 official source full page

Aye · 58

Nay · 26

Not voting · 15

Assembly: CONCURRENCE

Passed 56–27 Dec 4, 2018 official source full page

Aye · 56

Nay · 27

Not voting · 4

Assembly: SUSPEND RULES TO IMMEDIATELY MESSAGE

Passed 57–26 Dec 4, 2018 official source full page

Aye · 57