# State v. Cole

> Wisconsin Supreme Court · July 15, 2003 · 264 Wis. 2d 520

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9703627

## Case

- **Full name:** State of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Phillip Cole, Defendant-Appellant
- **Court:** Wisconsin Supreme Court
- **Decided:** July 15, 2003
- **Citations:** 264 Wis. 2d 520; 665 N.W.2d 328; 2003 WI 112; 2003 Wisc. LEXIS 613
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Abrahamson
- **Judges:** Wilcox, Abrahamson, Crooks, Prosser, Bradley
- **Cited by:** 100 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9703627

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding that when there is an application or interpretation of the statute that is constitutional, the statute is not unconstitutional on its face
- stating that an as-applied constitutional challenge may be waived or forfeited

## Opinion text

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, CHIEF JUSTICE
¶ 51. (concurring). I join Justice Prosser's concurrence except that part of his concurrence in which he states that he "strongly support[s] much of the majority opinion." 1 I have reservations about parts of the majority opinion.
*559 ¶ 52. For example, it does not make sense to me that the majority opinion gives a statute that predates a constitutional amendment the presumption of constitutionality under the later-enacted constitutional amendment. 2 The presumption of constitutionality is based on the reasonable belief that a legislature intends to enact laws that are valid under the Constitution at the time they are enacted, not the unreasonable assumption that a legislature can anticipate all future constitutional amendments and draft constitutionally immortal statutes.
¶ 53. Furthermore, I am not persuaded that there is any difference between rational basis test and the majority opinion's "reasonable exercise of police power" test. 3 The exercise of police power must always be reasonable, that is reasonably and rationally related to a legitimate government interest. 4 The concealed weapons statute is constitutional if it represents a reasonable exercise of the State's police power and does not eviscerate the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. 5
¶ 54. For the reasons set forth, I write separately.
See majority op., ¶¶ 12, 17.
See majority op., ¶ 26.
See Noranda Exploration, Inc. v. Ostrom, 113 Wis. 2d 612, 626 , 335 N.W.2d 596 (1983).
See State v. Hamdan, 2003 WI 113, ¶ 115 , 264 Wis. 2d 433 , 665 N.W.2d 785 (Abrahamson, C.J., dissenting), for further explanation of my views about the appropriate test to be applied.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9703627. Public record. Not legal advice.