This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/bye-bye-checks-balances/

2025 | Week of September 8 | Radio Transcript #1635

One of the greatest gifts the framers bestowed to us in the Constitution is their system of checks and balances. Checks and balances prevent one branch of the government from gaining too much power over the others. But since checks and balances protect the voice of the people by keeping the will of individuals in check, it is no surprise that they are constantly under attack by power-mongering politicians.

This summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court case Evers v. Marklein dealt a staggering blow to the system of checks and balances in our state. But the story begins five years ago. In 2020, a state licensing board adopted rules to ban so-called conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is the ambiguous and mostly wrongly term used to describe counseling that affirms a child’s birth sex instead of pushing them toward life-altering and irreversible so-called “reconstruction surgeries” or cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers. Under this rule, counselors and therapists could lose their licenses if they do not affirm the same-sex and transgender ideologies of their patients. Such a rule clearly violates the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and religious liberty.

In 2021, the legislative Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (or JCRAR) suspended the department’s ban on conversion therapy, meaning that once again, counselors were able to practice according to their consciences, at least for the time being. In the following years, the tug-of-war continued with bills being introduced to permanently block the ban and a second suspension of the ban by the JCRAR.

Finally, the struggle ended in a lawsuit. In the lawsuit Evers v. Marklein, the Court struck down the JCRAR’s authority to block or suspend administrative rules and in so doing reshaped the delicate balance of power between the executive and legislative branches introducing a new system that bypasses the JCRAR’s check of the executive branch’s power. Under this upset balance of powers, in order to block a rule, lawmakers must pass a bill through both chambers, and then the governor must sign the bill—not just a lengthy process but one that most likely results in a gubernatorial veto if the governor is not of the same mind as the legislature—which is certainly the situation we now have.

The consequences of this disastrous ruling are far reaching. With the check removed, the executive branch, under which all the departments and agencies function, can now push its agenda through obscure rulings that receive little attention but have big consequences. In her dissenting opinion of this case, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley explained, “[This ruling] invokes the Wisconsin Constitution to take power from the People’s elected representatives in the legislature and bestow it on the executive branch, empowering unelected bureaucrats to rule over the People.”[i]

In a current example, the Department of Human Services has tucked the removal of the words “pregnant mother” and “father” into a recent rule. This rule replaces “pregnant woman” with “member” or “persons” and replaces “prospective father” with “other parent.” In recent years, the Evers’ administration has attempted multiple times to replace the word mother or woman with “birthing person” or “inseminated person.” Now that the check on administrative rules is removed, the door has once again opened for these changes.

Liberals know language changes are effective in pushing their agenda. For instance, in this current situation, such language changes are medically inaccurate, devalue and disrespect women and their role in creating life, and are quite simply unnecessary. Independent Women’s Voice has observed, “Bureaucrats and elitists on the federal and state level are redefining language to fit a false narrative, all designed to erase that women exist as biologically distinct from men.”[ii] The department’s replacements for the terms “woman” and “father” sadly fit this description.

Over the years, I have often observed that elections have consequences. In this case, the election of liberal justices and a governor who actively opposes God’s design has not only reshaped current laws but also the balance of power in our state government. Next year is a big year for elections here in our state—a state supreme court justice, governor, assembly representatives, state senators, and US congressional representatives.  Election consequences are very real; this recent court case should be a powerful reminder.

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling reminding you that God, through the prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[i] https://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=980186
[ii] https://www.iwv.org/state-action/

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