WI Supreme Court Says Taverns And Bars Can Open

Many people are pointing to the testing results of Covid-19 coming up negative around the state of Wisconsin as a reason to re-open bars and taverns.

WQOW is reporting that the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Governor Evers' stay at home message and said the original decree by the Governor was unlawful and can not be enforced.

The Wisconsin Tavern League's message to Bar and Tavern owners, "Open Immediately."

A statement on the Wisconsin Tavern League website reads:

In a 4-3 ruling the State Supreme Court found the Emergency Orders issued by Secretary Palm as unlawful, invalid and unenforceable. The result of this decision is business can open immediately. Please follow the WEDC guidelines you can find on the TLW website. We will get you a more detailed summary of the decision, however, according to the ruling you can OPEN IMMEDIATELY!

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has come out with a Guidance Memo for taverns, restaurants and supper clubs for reopening.

You Can see a full list of the guidelines being recommended for opening the businesses back up.

At the time I am writing this there is no official word on how law enforcement will handle anything or any statements by anyone connected with any particular city. The Governor has not commented either but is expected to react. The DNT is reporting that Dane county has replied and said they have their own stay-at-home order. and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says they have their own rules to stick by too.

WPR has reported that State Republicans want to take a regional approach and were behind the decision.

Is it too early to re-open the Taverns and Bars? It does seem to be a hardship on the whole Tavern and Bar community. Will this turn out like the restaurant that opened in Colorado, so many people crowded in that it had to be shut down? The list of guidelines might make this a smart step by step opening.

Also on the Wisconsin Tavern League website are statements by the licensing companies saying they understand that these places aren't operating and therefore can't pay their music license bills, but they aren't open and aren't playing music to be paying fees anyway, the wholesale companies are hurting too.

Is the recent 0 positive testing something that fed into this decision. We will see how this unfolds. Will this be brought to the State Supreme Court again when all the regions don't recommend the open right away?