Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin is an immense asshole and, to that end, he recently filed a lawsuit against 16 of his own constituents in the state of Kentucky.
Those constituents challenged Bevin's Medicaid work requirements in federal court and they won so, in response, Bevin filed a countersuit against them by claiming they had harmed Kentucky by challenging the state's policy in Washington D.C.
Not surprisingly, Bevin's ridiculous lawsuit was thrown out of court yesterday.
[U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove] dismissed Bevin's lawsuit after finding the administration lacked "standing," or a sufficient basis, for bringing the case against 16 Kentuckians who had filed the legal challenge to the Medicaid changes.
"Not all disputes are capable of federal judicial review," Van Tatenhove wrote in a 12-page opinion. "Federal courts are limited in their jurisdiction and they can only hear cases where the plaintiff can establish jurisdiction. Here, the Commonwealth failed to do so."
Bevin's countersuit in Frankfort argued that "liberal interest groups" filed the case outside Kentucky and "failed to include the Commonwealth."
The idea that the original lawsuit challenging Bevin's work requirements didn't "include the Commonwealth" doesn't pass the laugh test.
Matt Bevin himself chose to participate in that lawsuit as a defendant. He's the fucking governor. He represented the Commonwealth.
Amusingly, when the first lawsuit was filed against Bevin's work requirements, he argued that the case should be moved to a federal court in Kentucky as if that would automatically lead to a better outcome for the state. Bevin filed his countersuit in Kentucky and that didn't work out for him either.
Nothing has worked out in Bevin's favor because, at the end of the day, this is a Trump regime policy that was thrown together on a whim. Matt Bevin made the decision to impose work requirements, but the federal government had to give him permission to do so. And as you might expect, neither Matt Bevin or the Trump regime could demonstrate in court that work requirements would help more people than it harms.