Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is all about "small government" except when he isn't. Case in point: Walker has refused to defend a lawsuit aimed at killing a state law allowing same-sex partners to visit their partners in hospitals. Because, you know, the government should be in charge of who you have with you when you're sick or dying and need comfort, and Scott Walker knows better than you do and wants you to die alone and scared if you have the wrong sexuality.
Wisconsin Family Action sued last year in Dane County circuit court, arguing that the registries violated a 2006 amendment to the state constitution that bans gay marriage and any arrangement that is substantially similar.
Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen refused to defend the lawsuit, saying he agreed the new law violated the state constitution. Then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, hired Madison attorney Lester Pines to defend the state.
Walker, a Republican, replaced Doyle in January and fired Pines in March. On Friday, Walker filed a motion to stop defending the case.
"Governor Walker, in deference to the legal opinion of the attorney general that the domestic partner registry…is unconstitutional, does not believe the public interest requires a continued defense of this law," says the brief, filed by Walker's chief counsel, Brian Hagedorn.
Walker seeks to stop defense of state's domestic partner registry
(via Reddit)
