MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Latest on Wisconsin withdrawing from health care lawsuits (all times local):
7:45 p.m.
A federal judge has granted Wisconsin’s request to withdraw from a multistate lawsuit seeking repeal of the federal health care law opponents call Obamacare.
The judge on Tuesday granted the state’s request made by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul at the order of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The judge also allowed Wisconsin to withdraw in a second case also related to the health care law.
Kaul moved to withdraw Wisconsin after a law passed in a lame-duck legislative session taking away that power was repealed by a Wisconsin judge.
Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker had Wisconsin join the multistate effort to repeal the health care law. Both Evers and Kaul ran last year in opposition to that move and said they would withdraw the state. They were temporarily blocked from doing that by the law passed in the lame-duck session.
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6:36 p.m.
A federal court has allowed Wisconsin to withdraw from a multistate federal lawsuit related to the national health care law.
The approval granted Tuesday is the first time Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has withdrawn the state from a lawsuit after the Legislature attempted to block him from doing that in a December lame-duck session. Kaul acted in March after a Wisconsin judge repealed the lame-duck laws, but before a state appeals court put that ruling on hold last week.
The U.S. District Court in Northern Texas on Tuesday approved Kaul’s request to remove Wisconsin from a lawsuit challenging a federal rule that interpreted a ban on sex discrimination in the health care law as including “gender identity” and “termination of pregnancy.”
Kaul is also seeking to withdraw Wisconsin from a higher profile multistate lawsuit attempting to repeal the health care law.
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