Evers tangles with Schimel, Walker over representation
MADISON – State schools Superintendent Tony Evers told Attorney General Brad Schimel he was dumping him Wednesday in an escalating legal fight over Evers’ powers — but Schimel refused to step aside.
The dispute pits Evers against Schimel and Gov. Scott Walker. Walker and Schimel are Republicans and Evers is one of more than a dozen Democrats seeking to challenge Walker next year.
“I just have two words to say to Scott Walker’s hand-picked lawyers: You’re fired,” Evers told reporters Tuesday.
“You’re fired because in a democracy the governor doesn’t get to choose his opponents on the ballot or his opponents’ lawyers in court.”
In a letter, Evers told Schimel he had a conflict of interest in the case and could not ethically represent him. Schimel isn’t going anywhere, said his spokesman, Johnny Koremenos.
“Whether Superintendent Evers likes it or not, the State of Wisconsin is the actual defendant in this lawsuit, and his personal opinions as to what the law is or should be will have no bearing on the attorney general’s power or ethical duty to represent the state,” Koremenos said in an email.
That could leave it to the Supreme Court — which has not yet even agreed to take the case — to decide who will represent Evers. Conservatives control the high court 5-2.
The lawsuit was brought last week by teachers from Pleasant Prairie and Burlington and school board members from New London and Marshfield. They are represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.
They contend Evers must comply with a recent law requiring the heads of state agencies to get initial approval from Walker’s Department of Administration before writing state rules. Evers says the law does not apply to him because he is an independently elected constitutional officer, noting the state Supreme Court last year ruled he did not have to abide by a similar law.
Schimel and Walker agree with the conservatives bringing the lawsuit.
Walker prevented Evers from hiring his own attorney. Schimel told the Supreme Court his office would be representing Evers after Evers tried to use an attorney from his Department of Public Instruction.
Now, Evers is trying to get rid of Schimel, but Schimel won’t step down.
Meanwhile, Madison attorneys Lester Pines and Susan Crawford said they may intervene in the lawsuit or bring a suit of their own to represent the views of teachers and parents who side with Evers.
Pines and Crawford successfully argued last year’s case and Pines was involved in a similar lawsuit two decades ago that also upheld the power of the schools superintendent.
Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative law firm bringing the case, said he wouldn’t get involved in who represents Evers and would not oppose Pines and Crawford intervening in the case.
“We’re not going to weigh in on who represents the other side in litigation. It’s not our fight,” Esenberg told reporters in a conference call.
The latest lawsuit hopes to revisit last year’s 4-3 decision, in which two conservatives on the court sided with the court’s two liberals. Since then, the makeup of the court has changed and the conservatives bringing the lawsuit hope they can now persuade a majority of the court to their thinking.
Last year’s case and this one center on administrative rules, which are written to implement state laws and include more specifics than laws do. Conservatives say those rules need more review to keep them in check.