A proposed amendment to the Wisconsin constitution that would clarify that state and local officials “may not order the closure of or forbid gatherings in places of worship,” in response to a state of emergency declared at any level of government during a public health emergency, will go before a state Senate committee Tuesday.
State Republican lawmakers introduced Senate Joint Resolution 54 in June in response to the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown order that restricted worship gatherings, even though the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down that order.
“Introducing this should not be necessary, but unfortunately during COVID, many of our rights were thrown out the window,” state Rep. Ty Bodden (R-Hilbert) said, reported Wisconsin State Journal. “It’s time to right the wrongs of the past and do what we can to prevent those rights from ever being taken from us again.”
State Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee) led the resolution in the Senate.
For Republicans, the value of a constitutional amendment that bars the shutdown of places of worship during a public health emergency is that a Democrat governor cannot veto it.
In 2021, Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a bill prohibiting public health orders from restricting worship services and gatherings in places of worship.
The bill, Evers said, “would take away existing tools available to state and local public health officials to prevent and suppress COVID-19.”
“[O]ur response to this pandemic should be about following the science and public health experts, not finding ways to make it harder to fight it,” he added.
The Rev. Kerri Parker, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, expressed a lack of support for the resolution among some members of the council.
“Legal actions such as this proposed constitutional amendment aren’t supported or desired by all religious bodies,” she said, according to the Journal. “Even as some support it, some of our members believe it would do more harm than good.”
In January 2022, Parker and her council recommended that churches end in-person services for four to six weeks in order to “slow the omicron spread,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Parker and other members of her organization reportedly said they believed their social distance and vaccination efforts amounted to living out the principle of loving one’s neighbor.
The Republicans’ proposed constitutional amendment “comes as conservative groups have put a renewed emphasis on constitutional amendments as a way to bypass Evers’ veto pen and preserve and enact legislation that they fear could be struck down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which will have a liberal majority come Aug. 1,” reported the Journal.
As the resolution indicates, “a constitutional amendment requires adoption by two successive legislatures, and ratification by the people, before it can become effective.”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “State Sen. Cory Tomczyk” by Cory Tomczyk.
