AG: Switching sides with Obamacare suit unlikely
MADISON - If Wisconsin stays in a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, it likely will not switch sides, the state’s attorney general said Thursday.
Republican lawmakers have kept Wisconsin in the lawsuit despite opposition from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Evers last month suggested Wisconsin could change its stance in the case so that it sided with states trying to keep the Affordable Care Act in place rather than ones trying to overturn it.
But in an interview Thursday, Kaul said he probably wouldn’t do that.
“I haven’t assessed that issue in any sort of in-depth manner, but the state is in the case and has been in the case on one side of the case and it would be extremely unusual in that circumstance to switch sides,” Kaul said. “So my expectation is that if the state remains in the case it will remain in the case on the same side that it’s on.”
Evers and Kaul campaigned on getting Wisconsin out of the multistate challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which is widely known as Obamacare.
After Evers and Kaul were elected but before they were seated, Republican lawmakers passed legislation putting the Legislature’s budget committee in charge of litigation instead of the governor and attorney general.
The lame-duck laws also curbed the powers of the governor and attorney general in other ways. Three legal actions have been filed over those laws, including one that resulted in a judge’s order striking down limits on early voting.
Kaul last month asked the leaders of the budget committee to let Wisconsin drop out of the Affordable Care Act lawsuit, but they haven’t taken the issue up.
They indicated last week they would keep the state in the lawsuit, with Republican Rep. John Nygren of Marinette saying, “I don’t see a huge change in our perspective” on the lawsuit that Republicans have long supported.
The heads of the Joint Finance Committee do not have to take any action and can keep the state in the lawsuit by ignoring Kaul’s request. They could also put the request before the committee, which Republicans control 12-4.
A federal judge in Texas in December found Obamacare unconstitutional, but the health care law remains in place while the decision is appealed. The case will continue regardless of whether Wisconsin is part of the lawsuit.
In January, Evers said in his State of the State speech he was “directing” Kaul to get out of the lawsuit. A letter he sent to Kaul didn’t go that far and Evers acknowledged the next day he wasn’t telling Kaul to do anything.
After that, Kaul asked the leaders of the budget committee to withdraw Wisconsin from the case. He has not received an answer.