MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A conservative law firm on Wednesday asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to dramatically scale back the ability of governors to change the intent of lawmakers through partial budget vetoes — a move that would reverse more than four decades of precedent.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of three taxpayers by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, is the most aggressive challenge yet to partial vetoes that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers made to the state budget approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature in June.

A favorable ruling would have an impact far beyond the current budget and governor, limiting partial vetoes into the future.

“The governor’s veto power has been used creatively, and sometimes absurdly, by governors of both parties,” said Rick Esenberg, the president of WILL. “But the partial veto cannot act as a magic wand, creating new laws out of whole cloth.”

Esenberg said that while Republican governors have done the same thing with partial vetoes, this lawsuit does not target Evers.

Evers shrugged off the lawsuit as trying to re-fight old political battles.

“We had an election, we had a budget, the budget was signed and deliberated by Republicans and Democrats, so I’m ready to move on,” Evers told reporters. “Apparently, they’re not.”

Republicans and their allies like those bringing the lawsuit want to overturn the results of the November election, said Analiese Eicher, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn four of Evers’ 78 partial vetoes, arguing that he improperly and unlawfully used his broad constitutional powers to create new laws never approved by the Legislature. The lawsuit asks the Supreme Court, controlled 5-2 by conservatives, to overturn a 1978 ruling in a similar case that determined the governor could enact new policy through his partial veto.