Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul says his office is involved in more than 50 cases challenging actions by the Trump administration, while also pursuing state-level enforcement cases involving online prediction markets and en vironmental violations.In a sit-down interview with NBC 26, Kaul said the common thread is protecting Wisconsin residents, state funding, and the rule of law.WATCH THE BROADCAST INTERVIEW HERE: AG Josh Kaul on lawsuits, betting and politicsThere are now over 50 cases that my administration has joined challenging different actions the Trump administration has taken, Kaul said. A lot of those are cases where there are funds that were passed by Congress to be distributed to communities across the country, including here in Wisconsin, and the administration, even though there's a law on the books that provides for these funds to be provided, has just said we're not gonna provide those funds. And so we have stepped in to protect communities in Wisconsin.Kaul pointed to education funding as one example, saying the Trump administration tried to withhold money over the summer, shortly before the school year was set to begin.Well, that would have had a big impact on school budgets in Wisconsin, Kaul said. We and other states filed suit. Some Republican US senators wrote a letter to the White House, and ultimately, the Trump administration backed down, and those dollars came to communities.Kaul said his office has also joined lawsuits involving AmeriCorps, federal grant conditions, and privacy concerns.How Wisconsin decides when to sueKaul said his office looks at two main factors before joining a national lawsuit.There are a couple of things that we look at in making this decision, Kaul said. One is, is this a policy from the federal government that harms the interests of Wisconsinites? If it's a policy that doesn't have to do with Wisconsinites, that's not something that I'm focused on.He said the second factor is whether the state believes it has a strong legal argument.My job is to represent the people of this state, uh, and then secondly, is there a strong legal basis for the challenge? Kaul said. Because even if there's a policy that I might disagree with or might be bad for the state, there's no reason to go into court if it's not gonna be, uh, likely to be successful.When asked about critics who say multistate lawsuits can look political, Kaul pointed to the results in court.Well, I think one thing you can do is look at the success that we've had, Kaul said. Um, there's a reason that courts keep ruling in our favor in these cases, and there have been lower court judges who have blocked things this administration has done who are both Democratic appointees and Republican appointees.Kaul said the lawsuits have major financial implications for Wisconsin.Ultimately, being a part of these suits is really critical because, uh, there are hundreds of millions of dollars, at least of one-time dollars, at stake for Wisconsin, Kaul said.He also cited federal transportation funding as an example.One place where they tried to put illegal conditions in place was on Department of Transportation funding, Kaul said. That has about a billion dollars per year impact on Wisconsin, and losing that funding or putting it at risk is not good for the interests of Wisconsinites.Prediction markets lawsuitKaul also discussed Wisconsins lawsuit against prediction market companies. The state has accused several companies of offering what it says amounts to illegal sports betting by calling wagers event contracts.He said the states position is that the products are essentially sports gambling.You were able to what they say is buy an event contract on a sporting event and basically we allege that that is essentially just gambling on the results of sports, Kaul said. And if you look at what's happening in practice, we allege there's no real difference. It's, it's you know who's going to win this game, it's how many points is a team going to score, that sort of thing.Kaul said Wisconsin law cannot be avoided by changing the label.What we've said basically is that you can't take something that is addressed by Wisconsin law, unlawful gambling, and all of a sudden make it legal just by calling it an event contract, Kaul said. So that that case is ongoing, but we feel confident about our arguments.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued Wisconsin in response. Kaul said the case is now also about who has the authority to regulate these products.Kaul said states have historically regulated gambling.If you look at the history of this country, states have been involved in regulating gambling, uh, throughout the course of, of our nation's history, Kaul said. And their argument is essentially that Congress, without much debate or anybody really recognizing it at the time, changed the laws to create this loophole that allows for certain gambling to be not just legalized but outside of the control of states.Kaul said Wisconsin disagrees with that argument.We argued that that's just wrong, Kaul said.Kaul said he believes the case could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.This is going to play out in courts, not just here in Wisconsin but around the country, Kaul said. There are other states that have similar cases where there's similar litigation. I think there's a good chance that the Supreme Court may ultimately resolve this question about who has enforcement authority.Neenah Foundry settlementKaul also discussed a $200,000 settlement with Neenah Foundry Company, which resolved a civil environmental enforcement action involving alleged air pollution permit violations at the companys two foundry plants in Winnebago County.Kaul said the case involved alleged violations of a permit that applied to Neenah Foundry.Kaul said environmental permits are designed to balance business operations with public and environmental protection.The thing I would stress is there are permits in place that try to balance this idea that we want companies to be able to run their businesses, but we want them to do it in a way that that ensures that our environment is protected and that there's not more pollution than is than is necessary or or so much pollution that it's gonna harm people, Kaul said.When asked whether the alleged violations were paperwork issues or had environmental implications, Kaul said many of the allegations involved pollution control systems.There were a number of violations alleged here, so a lot of the violations allege that the company failed to maintain and operate pollution-controlled devices or to monitor pollution, Kaul said. And so a lot of them relate to that. These are the kinds of systems that are in place to prevent there from being significant pollution or to mitigate pollution.Kaul said the state also alleged record-keeping and reporting violations.Um, we also alleged that there were some, um, record-keeping violations and, um, one allegation had to do with failure to report, uh, deviations from the permits, Kaul said.Where enforcement ends, and politics beginsAs the Wisconsin DOJ joins more high-profile lawsuits, Kaul was asked how he separates legal enforcement from politics.Kaul said different administrations will have different priorities, but enforcement must be evenhanded.What's critical, though, is when our laws are being enforced that they're enforced in an evenhanded way, Kaul said. And so we may say that our priority is to enforce environmental laws, but if you're then targeting the violators based on. You know their politics or based on something that that is anything other than their conduct, that's not how our system of law enforcement is supposed to work.Kaul said he has been troubled by some actions by the federal government that he believes target people based on who they are or what positions they have taken.That's not how our system of government should work, Kaul said. We need to ensure that our laws are equally enforced regardless of who's alleged to have violated them. ...read more read less