Rep. Andrew Hysell said Wisconsin’s state level officials need to act when the federal government is “failing” people. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin’s freshman Democratic lawmakers are calling for the state’s constitution to be amended to include an explicit protection for Wisconsinites’ fundamental right to privacy.

“For months, we have seen agents of the federal government run roughshod over the law and the Constitution. Doing so is harming and even killing Americans,” Rep. Andrew Hysell (D-Sun Prairie) said at a press conference. “Not surprisingly, people here in Wisconsin are very afraid. If members of ICE can kill with impunity, how can anyone feel safe? This should not be happening in the United States.” 

The recent shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse from Green Bay, by federal Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis has prompted an array of reactions from Wisconsin politicians including Gov. Tony Evers, who joined a lawsuit challenging the presence of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities, and candidates for governor, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who said that “cooperation is how you avoid tragic consequences.”

Hysell said Wisconsin’s state level officials need to act when the federal government is “failing” people.

“When federal agents operate outside the limits set by the United States Constitution, state constitutions become the last meaningful line of defense for individual liberty,” Hysell said. 

Hysell said that elevating an individual right to privacy in Wisconsin would place clear constitutional limits on government intrusion, including administrative warrants issued by enforcement agencies rather than judges, civil detentions that function as criminal restraints without criminal process, pretextual entry into homes and the collection or use of personal data and location information without individualized judicial review.

Hysell said a constitutional amendment would act as a stronger protection than a change in state law. 

“A fundamental right flips the script in court. Instead of you having to plead to the judge that the government has done something wrong, the government has to justify how it had the power to do it in the first place,” Hysell said. “Wisconsin has a statutory right to privacy that provides some protection, but it’s not enough. Elevating the right to privacy to a constitutional level here in Wisconsin gives us protection from governmental overreach and abuse, exactly the kind of things we’ve seen in Minneapolis.”

Hysell said the bill has the support of all 23 first-term Democratic representatives.

“It’s actually quite simple,” Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) said. “It affirms Wisconsinites constitutional right to privacy. It’s very simple in language, and it’s a fundamental promise that deeply personal decisions belong to individuals and families — not politicians or the government.”

Constitutional amendments in Wisconsin have to pass two consecutive sessions of the state Legislature and receive approval from a majority of voters to become law. 

Wisconsin voters have decided on 10 constitutional amendment questions in the last five years. There are likely to be three on deck, including one to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, on the ballot in November alongside Wisconsin’s open race for governor, Congressional races and state legislative races.

“Wisconsin constitutional amendments used to mean something, but now they have become weaponized by the Republican majority and used as a way to circumvent the governor’s desk all while debasing our state constitution,” Ratcliff said. “Today’s proposed Wisconsin constitutional right to privacy amendment is not political theater or abstract language. It’s about ensuring that government power has clear limits, that individuals are protected from unreasonable intrusion and that all of our core liberties are upheld.”

Hysell said there are 11 other states, including Montana and Alaska, that have privacy rights covered in their state constitutions.

The proposal will face a difficult path in the Republican-led Legislature.

Hysell said in response to a question about getting Republicans on board that “this really should be a nonpartisan issue because it’s about protecting all Americans.”