| Judge Rules Legislature Can't Stop the Clock |
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| July 31, 2008 |
Uh-Oh - Judge Rules Stopping the Clock Not
for Legislature
Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled today that the Kentucky Legislature cannot stop the clock in a legal fiction to stop time and allow them more time to pass bills before the constitutional deadline of midnight on the 15th.
Sen. David Williams sued the Governor because he didn't like road funding as it passed.
One argument used was the Legislature stopped the clock at midnight and passed bills while time stood still is illegal. In the good old days, without digital clocks and computers that know the "real time", stopping the clock was not unusual.
In the age of computers, there is no way to fool computers that the earth has stood still to allow the Legislature to finish up in the day they started.
Judge Shepherd ruled that bills passed after clocks in the rest of the Eastern Time Zone said midnight were passed after midnight in the Capitol and that means after the clock had run out on midnight on the 15th of April.
The parties will probably take the issue to a higher court - the Supreme Court can take up the issue if it wants or it can let the Court of Appeals have a swing at it first.
In the meantime, transportation funding and whatever else got squeezed into the final moment float in limbo.
Editor's Note:
Bluegrass Report and PageOne are calling this ruling a victory for Gov. Beshear and a defeat for Senator Williams. Williams says the issue of the clock wasn't briefed and the Judge should hear the arguments before gaveling down on the time issue.
The fact is that both houses stopped their clocks and the Governor signed legislation sent to him that was passed after the deadline. Who is innocent here? Only the people of Kentucky who have to pay for this sort of shenanigans by paying the law firms involved.
Maybe so, but it is also a backhand at legislative leadership who took crucial bills up to the final moments of the session and beyond. Sen. Williams stalled on bringing budget bills up for a vote in the Senate. Both houses spent way too much time on items with little to do with governing. It is probably too much to hope that they have learned their lesson.
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