A complaint filed in Wisconsin Circuit Court sought to terminate the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) agreement with New York University (NYU) that the plaintiffs alleged authorized a Legal Fellow employed by the NYU School of Law State Energy and Environmental Impact Center to work as a Wisconsin Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG). The plaintiffs alleged that the SAAG was “paid exclusively by the Center and its special interest backers” and that the agreement required DOJ to use the SAAG’s services to further the Center’s goals of defending, enforcing, and promoting “strong laws and policies in the areas of climate, environmental justice, environmental protection, and clean energy.” The plaintiffs—an alliance of dairy farms, a milk marketing cooperative, and a Wisconsin resident who previously was a DOJ attorney and official—asserted that the agreement with NYU was ultra vires, unlawful, and unconstitutional.

Action seeking to terminate a Wisconsin Department of Justice agreement with New York University providing for a Legal Fellow employed by an NYU School of Law center to work as a Special Assistant Attorney General.

Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, Inc. v. Kaul

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Wisconsin Case Challenged State’s Employment of “Special Assistant Attorney General” to Work on Environmental, Climate, and Clean Energy Cases

Filed

United States of America

Wisconsin

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People whose sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression differs from the majority or societal norms

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Wisconsin Case Challenged State’s Employment of “Special Assistant Attorney General” to Work on Environmental, Climate, and Clean Energy Cases

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Finance