The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Wisconsin
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Wis. Stat. ch. 252, Communicable Diseases
- Effective
- standing
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Standing dutyOther
- Addressees
- persons generally (every natural person and, through its officers and agents, every business)
- Character
- order penalty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Wisconsin DUT-WI
Operative words
Any person who willfully violates or obstructs the execution of any state statute or rule, county, city or village ordinance or departmental order under this chapter and relating to the public health, for which no other penalty is prescribed, shall be imprisoned for not more than 30 days or fined not more than $500 or both.
Penalty
Imprisonment not more than 30 days or fine not more than $500 or both (the statute's text); Emergency Orders #12 § 17 and #28 § 18 recited 'up to 30 days imprisonment, or up to $250 fine, or both. Wis. Stat. § 252.25'; Emergency Order #3 § 6 recited 'civil forfeiture. Wis. Stat. § 252.25; Legislature v. Palm.'
What it required
Every person in Wisconsin was bound, under criminal penalty, to obey every DHS order and every county, city or village health ordinance or order issued under ch. 252, including the Safer at Home orders (which recited this section) and the local health-officer orders that ran through Q3 2021.
Retrieval notePalm ¶ 3 (Ex. WI-007): 'Wis. Stat. § 252.25 required that Emergency Order 28 be promulgated using the procedures established by the Legislature for rulemaking if criminal penalties were to follow'; the Court held the order, not the statute, unenforceable. OAG-03-20 ¶ 5 (DUT-WI-017) advised local authorities to enforce § 252.03 orders by ordinance or administrative enforcement, which Dane County and Madison did (Ex. MET-MKE-006 § 9). The 2023-24 text is in Ex. WI-039.