GOP legislators seek to intervene in more lawsuits at taxpayer expense — this time over environmental laws

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - Republican lawmakers are continuing a streak of hiring private attorneys at taxpayer expense to try to intervene in lawsuits — this time to get involved in a pair of environmental cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The legislators have had mixed success in recent weeks. They were able to join a lawsuit challenging lame-duck laws they passed in December but were denied their attempt to intervene in a lawsuit over the state’s abortion laws.

A committee of legislative leaders voted 6-4 Thursday to hire Husch Blackwell, a national law firm with offices in Wisconsin. The measure was approved on party lines, with all Republicans in favor and all Democrats opposed.

GOP leaders did not say how much they would pay the firm's attorneys, but for other work by the firm they recently agreed to pay $215 to $820 an hour.

One of the cases the lawmakers are trying to join centers on what requirements can be included in an environmental permit for a dairy operation in Kewaunee County. The other concerns whether the state Department of Natural Resources must take into account the cumulative effects high-capacity wells will have on nearby lakes, rivers and streams.

Both cases touch on Act 21, a 2011 law that supporters say prohibits the DNR and other regulatory agencies from putting conditions on businesses and individuals that go beyond what is explicitly spelled out in state laws and state rules.

“We’re looking to intervene in (these cases) because we’re concerned about the implementation of all laws by state agencies," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester said in a statement. "We can’t afford to go back to an era where overzealous bureaucrats bury the hard-working men and women of the state of Wisconsin with needless government red tape."

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse said Republicans were wasting taxpayer money by trying to join the cases.

“Rather than ensuring every Wisconsinite is able to drink clean water from their tap, Republican leaders want to continue picking petty political fights on the taxpayer’s dime," she said in a statement.

The state Supreme Court recently agreed to hear both cases. Arguments are expected in the fall.

The 4-3 conservative majority on the high court will grow to 5-2 in August, when incoming Justice Brian Hagedorn will replace retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

The lawmakers’ attempt to get involved in the case is the latest sign Republicans do not trust Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul to represent their views in court.

A spokeswoman for Kaul did not say what Kaul thought of lawmakers' attempt to get in the cases.

Kaul said he would defend the state's abortion statutes in a lawsuit brought this year by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Lawyers for the legislators said they feared he would not do so as ardently as he should in part because an arm of Planned Parenthood endorsed Kaul last year.

U.S. District Judge William Conley in a ruling this week found lawmakers had come nowhere near showing they had a right to join the case and declined to let them do so.

In another case, a Dane County judge let legislators join a lawsuit challenging lame-duck laws they passed to limit the powers of Kaul and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Lawmakers approved the measures after Kaul and Evers were elected but before they were sworn in.

That case and another one challenging those laws are pending before the state Supreme Court.

In that other lame-duck case, GOP legislative leaders were named as defendants and did not have to seek to join the case. They have also been named as defendants in a challenge to the lame-duck laws brought in federal court by the state Democratic Party.

Last year, GOP legislators intervened in a lawsuit challenging election maps they drew in 2011 that have helped them win elections in recent years. Taxpayers will pay the Chicago firm Bartlit Beck up to $840,000 for its work through trial, which is slated for this summer.

In the lame-duck cases, Republican lawmakers have retained Troutman Sanders and Husch Blackwell. Evers has also retained private attorneys in those cases — Pines Bach, Lawton & Cates and Gingras, Cates and Wachs — to represent him and other state officials.

So far, the lame-duck cases have cost taxpayers more than $280,000, but that number will likely rise sharply because more work is ahead.

In the abortion case, lawmakers hired Consovoy McCarthy Park of Virginia for their unsuccessful effort to intervene in the lawsuit.

The attorneys Evers hired are charging $275 an hour.

Most of the attorneys for the lawmakers are charging $500 an hour, but the Husch Blackwell attorneys are charging between $215 and $820 an hour for their work on the lame-duck cases.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.