Top Stories Milwaukee

Whomever Gov. Scott Walker chooses to represent the state in a case challenging the state’s domestic partner registry will have to share the defense with a pair of lawyers working for Lambda Legal, a national gay rights group. Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, signed legislation in 2009 to create the registry, which grants some of the rights enjoyed by married couples to same-sex ones. But Walker, when campaigning, indicated he doesn’t favor the state registry.

This puts Walker in a peculiar position. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the governor had fired the attorney appointed by Doyle to defend the registry, Lester Pines, and planned to replace him with someone else. Doyle hired Pines after state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, refused to take the case.

Wisconsin Family Action, a family values group, is suing the state over the law, alleging it violates the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Last year, in an effort to bring more legal firepower on behalf of the defense, ten same-sex couples and the gay rights group Fair Wisconsin asked to intervene in the case, meaning any attorneys hired by them (Lambda Legal had pledged its support) could help defend the registry.

In December, Dane County Judge Daniel Moeser allowed Fair Wisconsin and five couples to join the case. In his order, he acknowledges that once Walker takes office in January, the dynamics of the case could change. “A potential complicating factor in this case is that the current but outgoing governor continues to support Wisconsin domestic partner laws,” he writes, “while the incoming governor may have taken public positions to the contrary.”

Moeser adds, “Intervention now may avoid delaying this case in the future if the new state administration provides different direction to its defense counsel, which would most certainly result in (another) motion to intervene at that time.”

The two attorneys representing Fair Wisconsin and  the five same-sex couples are Christopher Clark, a Lambda Legal staff lawyer, and Brian Butler, a Madison attorney hired by Lambda Legal.

In recent weeks, they have taken up efforts to defend the registry. Clark issued a statement earlier this week: “We remain steadfast in defending a law this is clearly constitutional … We fear that the governor’s actions signals his intention to reverse the position of the state and no longer defend the domestic partnership law.”

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Family Action is getting legal help from the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization based in Arizona. It’s fielding three staff attorneys and two in Wisconsin that it has described in press releases as “ADF-allied,” Michael Dean of Waukesha and Taylor Samuel of Kenosha.

A Walker spokesman didn’t return a request for comment on Thursday.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.