Attorney General Josh has filed a lawsuit challenging parts of a Republican-authored law limiting his powers.
It was passed during a lame-duck legislative session two years ago, and the Democratic AG is targeting parts of the law requiring the state Department of Justice which he heads to get approval from the legislature’s finance committee before settling certain lawsuits.
“What we’re arguing is this case it that under our constitution’s separation of powers, those are core executive branch functions, and constitutionally it’s improper for the legislature to have a role in resolving those cases,” Kaul said Monday. “What that means is that our ability to get cases resolved that protect our environment, that protect consumers who were cheated by companies, or that save the taxpayers money by getting resolution for state agencies, those are harder to resolve now than they should be.”
This narrowly focused challenge comes four months after the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the lame-duck laws, which also restricted some of the authority of Governor Tony Evers.