Wisconsin justices to hand down lame-duck ruling

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Supreme Court is ready to hand down a ruling in a lawsuit challenging Republican’s lame-duck laws limiting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul’s powers.

The court plans to release its decision Friday morning. The ruling will settle a lawsuit brought by a group of liberal-leaning organizations that contends the Legislature convened illegally when it passed the laws in December.

A Dane County judge sided with the liberal-leaning organizations in March and blocked the laws. A state appeals court has stayed his injunction, however.

The laws prohibit Evers from ordering Kaul to withdraw from lawsuits, required Kaul to get legislators’ permission to settle lawsuits and guaranteed lawmakers the right to intervene in lawsuits using their own attorneys rather than lawyers within Kaul’s Department of Justice.