Governor Tony Evers is making a move, regarding the state’s participation in an Obamacare lawsuit. But a letter he’s sending to Attorney General Josh Kaul may stop short of withdrawing the state from that suit.
“It’ll be asking us to change our stance with that lawsuit,” Evers told reporters at Mendota Elementary School in Madison on Wednesday. “That’s something I promised during the election, and I’m going to follow through on that.”
Evers provided no details Wednesday on the letter, or whether it will be at odds with Republican-imposed requirements that he and Kaul get approval from the Legislature to withdraw from the suit. “You’ll have to see the letter,” he said.
Republican state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald tweeted in response. “Governor Evers has decided to spend his first week in office issuing edicts and looking for ways to skirt state law so that he can advance his partisan agenda.”
Instead of working with Republican lawmakers to find areas of agreement, Governor Evers has decided to spend his first week in office issuing edicts and looking for ways to skirt state law so that he can advance his partisan agenda. https://t.co/Lv81rllsdA
— Scott Fitzgerald (@SenFitzgerald) January 9, 2019
Under the direction of former Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin joined a multistate lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
Also on Wednesday, Evers joined call in supporting a so-called “red flag” law that would judges to take guns from people determined to be a threat to themselves or others. Kaul called for such as law in his inaugural speech Monday. “I would support that,” Evers said.
And Evers said he’ll visit the state’s troubled Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake youth prison on Friday. He said he wants to understand “the issues surrounding correctional justice directly from the people who work there.” The visit will represent a shift from the policy of former Walker, who never visited any state prisons.