The Great Lakes Legal Foundation has launched a new series of articles called Regulation Nation: The Wisconsin Perspective. The Foundation will produce various in-depth reports analyzing the legal underpinnings of Wisconsin’s often debilitating regulatory regime.
They start, necessarily, at the beginning, with a report on What is a Rule? The report explores the legal definition of “rule” under Wisconsin’s rulemaking process and discusses why that definition is important. The report explains that if an agency policy has the effect of a rule, then it must go through the proper rulemaking process, which includes public hearings, along with legislative and gubernatorial oversight. The report provides examples of state agencies attempting to avoid the rulemaking process by labeling a rule as “guidance,” which in turn deprives the public of their due process rights. The report concludes with a discussion of various legal avenues available to the public when an agency has acted outside of the rulemaking process.
The Great Lakes Legal Foundation is a non-profit legal foundation providing legal and policy expertise to advance economic growth and increase job opportunities in the upper Midwest. Its lawyers and staff are dedicated to assuring the Great Lakes states remain a competitive manufacturing region. For more information about GLLF, please visit http://greatlakeslegalfoundation.org/.