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But, WILL's carrying water for Republican legislators on the mask issue isn't over. Esenberg made it known that his lawyers would appeal. And, why not? WILL has the money to keep this going as long as it wants. So GOP leaders like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who has several of his colleagues facing tough elections on Nov. 3, may be saved after all.

The brainchild of Esenberg, a Harvard Law School grad and a former Marquette Law School faculty member, WILL has had decent success using the courts to champion conservative causes. It hasn't hurt, though, that Wisconsin's state Supreme Court is populated with justices who have close connections to the nonprofit firm. Many of its board members and employees have been longtime GOP contributors and have championed conservative candidates for the high court.

But, it hasn't succeeded in removing a Republican-championed attempt to purge the state's voter registration rolls of 130,000 who it maintained had moved since the last election, an action that critics believe is aimed at probable Democratic votes. The Supreme Court has heard arguments, but whether it will rule so close to an election is questionable but not out of the picture.

WILL does more than file lawsuits, although that does keep it quite busy. It also promotes Republican favorites like school choice and Scott Walker's Act 10, and opposes expanding Medicaid and campaign finance laws. Its researchers regularly release "studies" that claim that kids in voucher schools fare much better than public school students and that expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act will cost state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. A UW-Madison health official called the study "incredibly sloppy and dishonest."

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Plain Talk: WILL props up Wisconsin's Republican legislators as they rig the playing field - Madison.com