Nevertheless, four days later, Fitzgerald once again sent troopers from the State Patrol, which is run by his father, Stephen Fitzgerald, to senators’ homes.

On March 3, two weeks after the walkout, Fitzgerald ratcheted up the pressure. He called his 18 Republican colleagues into session, and when the Democrats did not return by 4 p.m., the Republicans found them in “contempt of the Senate.” Fitzgerald ordered that the Democrats be “forcibly detained” if they stepped foot in Wisconsin.

That day, Fitzgerald and his private attorney, James Troupis, sounded confident in Fitzgerald’s legal authority to bring the errant senators back to Madison. Troupis cited a constitutional provision that allows the Senate to “compel the attendance of absent members.”

The Senate resolution authorized Blazel to use force and enlist the help of law enforcement to bring in the missing members. Troupis explained that detention was not an “arrest” because the senators were not suspected of any crimes.

When Fitzgerald tried to have the order to detain put out on the statewide system that officers use to check for arrest warrants it drew the attention of the state Department of Justice, which urged the Senate to back down.