MADISON – Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is once again playing politics with real people. For decades, Wisconsin has led in accepting refugees and providing safe communities for them to thrive and have some security here. But Schimel is refusing to challenge President Trump’s immigration order, because he “sees no basis or need for the state to sue Trump,” Schimel told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Washington and Minnesota have filed lawsuits to temporarily block Trump’s order. But Schimel says, “We have closely reviewed this lawsuit and have not identified either a statutory or constitutional basis for this lawsuit, or identified how the state of Wisconsin could be harmed by the executive order.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports,
Liberal activist and attorney Jenni Dye doesn’t agree with Gorak on Trump’s order, but she does side with him in wanting a clear answer from Schimel on the order. She pointed out that Schimel has put in place a state solicitor general, Misha Tseytlin, who according to the state’s web site has “specialized in litigation challenging unconstitutional and otherwise unlawful overreach by the federal government.”
“The people deserve to know where Attorney General Schimel stands on this,” Dye said.
Soon after Trump issued his order, Schimel said he was reviewing it but did not know yet whether Trump had overreached or the state had been harmed.
The states of Washington and Minnesota sued to overturn Trump’s order and last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Thursday unanimously decided to keep a block on the ban in place.
Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos said last week that with the order blocked, there was “no action for the state to take at this time.”
Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said that Schimel would be free to take actions such as filing a friend of the court brief if he sees a reason to oppose or defend the federal order. Schimel can also decide it’s a question best left to the federal government, he said.
Read more at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
