MADISON — A conservative think tank and former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ decision excluding the group’s writers from press briefings, which lower courts have said was legal.
The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy filed the lawsuit in 2019 alleging that Evers violated its staffers’ constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of the press and equal access. A judge in 2020 rejected their arguments, saying MacIver can still report on what Evers does without being invited to his press briefings or being on his email distribution list.