MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) – Republican leaders in the State Legislature want to stop Gov. Tony Evers from extending his 'Safer at Home' order through May 26.

GOP lawmakers asked the Conservative-controlled Wisconsin State Supreme Court to take the case Tuesday thereby skipping lower courts and resulting in a final ruling faster.

Related Content:

The extended 'Safer at Home' order comes with a big difference from the first one. The latest order was only signed by Department of Health Services Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm. The initial one was signed by both Palm and Gov. Evers.

The governor's public health emergency powers only last 60 days if they are not extended by the legislature. Since Gov. Evers declared a public health emergency in March, those powers will end on May 11.

In their lawsuit, Republicans argue an unelected, unconfirmed cabinet secretary is using “czar-like powers” over the people of Wisconsin.

Dept. of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm answers questions during a teleconference.

“The governor has denied the people a voice through this unprecedented administrative overreach,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said in a joint statement after filing the lawsuit. “Unfortunately, that leaves the legislature no choice but to ask the Supreme Court to rein in this obvious abuse of power. Wisconsinites deserve certainty, transparency, and a plan to end the constant stream of executive orders that are eroding both the economy and their liberty even as the state is clearly seeing a decline in COVID infections.”

On April 16, Gov. Evers directed Secretary-Designee Palm to extend the order closing nonessential businesses.

Republicans argue Palm exceeded her authority when she did that.

They say allowing the secretary-designee to order people to stay home and close businesses in not only places with lots of confirmed positive cases of coronavirus but also rural areas with fewer cases, with no expiration date, amounts to more than what the governor can do with his emergency powers.

Though the latest 'Safer at Home' order is set to expire May 26, the fear is it could be extended again according to the lawsuit.

Republicans also argue the Department of Health Services didn't follow the state's requirements for rule-making thereby leaving the legislature out of the process.

The lawsuit asks the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent the latest 'Safer at Home' order from being enforced and to give the state's health department six days to come up with a new emergency rule.

In a series of Tweets Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers called the action by legislative Republicans “a shameful response.”

“Their lawsuit doesn’t mention saving lives,” Gov. Evers said. “It doesn’t mention protecting our nurses, doctors, first responders, and critical workers. Instead, it's 80 pages of a lawsuit focused entirely on how to get legislative Republicans more power.”

The Department of Health Services has until 4:00 p.m. on April 28 to respond to the lawsuit. Republicans will have until 4:00 p.m. on April 30 to file a response. Non-parties in support or opposition to the lawsuit have until April 29 to file a brief.