Judge temporarily blocks Wisconsin Republican lame-duck laws passed to limit new governor’s powers

A Dane County, Wisconsin, judge blocked former Gov. Scott Walker’s lame-duck electoral revenge scheme, which stripped key powers from the new governor, Democrat Tony Evers. Thursday’s  temporary injunction from Judge Richard Niess invalidates 82 appointments Walker and the lame-duck Republican legislature made, giving Evers the opportunity to fill the positions.

It also allowed Wisconsin to immediately withdraw from the multi-state lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Evers had made stopping the state’s fight against Obamacare a key campaign promise. Immediately following the ruling, he ordered the state Department of Justice to withdraw from the lawsuit.

Attorney General Josh Kaul immediately complied, and issued a public statement: “Today, we are seeking to end the State of Wisconsin’s involvement in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.” A partisan Republican federal judge struck down the ACA, ruling the whole law unconstitutional in the case brought by over 20 Republican states and supported by the Trump administration. The judge stayed his own ruling pending appeal, and a number of states have stepped into the vacuum left by the federal Justice Department to defend the law.