Divided Wisconsin Supreme Court reverses its 2022 decision, holds drop boxes are permissible under state law

The 4-3 decision in Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Elections Commission is here. Part III-A of the opinion focuses on the statutory interpretation issue. Part III-B focuses on the stare decisis issue, including these paragraphs (lightly revised):

We have previously stated a general principle that “stare decisis concerns are paramount where a court has authoritatively interpreted a statute because the legislature remains free to alter its construction.” Assuming such a principle applies here, stare decisis does not require us to uphold Teigen in this instance.

An underlying purpose of strong adherence to stare decisis where a statute is involved is to protect reliance interests attendant to a precedential opinion. Here, no such reliance interests counsel in favor of upholding an erroneous interpretation of Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1. Teigen has neither fostered reliance nor created a settled body of law.

Accordingly, we determine that the court’s conclusion in Teigen, that the subject statutes prohibit ballot drop boxes was unsound in principle, and as a consequence, we overrule it. Because the complaint sets forth allegations, which if true, would entitle the plaintiff to relief, the motion to dismiss the drop-box claim was wrongly denied.

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