The Wisconsin attorney general can be sued by the state’s dairy industry for using an outside lawyer to work on environmental cases, a judge has ruled.
Calumet County Judge Carey Reed rejected the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in a decision earlier this month, finding that two groups representing dairy farmers have standing to proceed.
That decision marks the latest challenge to a program that has sparked a conservative backlash in several states and at the U.S. Capitol.
The Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative have argued that Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul is violating the state Constitution by employing an attorney whose salary is paid for by a Bloomberg Philanthropies-backed fellowship program that “pushes states to pursue left-wing programs and policies.”
