Frankenstein (veto) wounded.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Brief article

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Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment in April preventing the governor from using a partial veto--commonly referred to as the Frankenstein veto--to create a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences of a bill approved by the Legislature.

Unlike most other states, Wisconsin governors have had the authority to approve spending bills "in whole or in part." And a long succession of Wisconsin governors, supported by some fascinating court decisions, have made creative use of the partial veto through strikethroughs that created new language far removed from what the Legislature originally passed.

Some Wisconsin governors struck individual letters in the wording of spending bills to create or reveal new words. This...