Attorneys Make Their Cases Regarding Lame Duck Case
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2019 -- 9:36 AM
(WRN) -Attorneys for the Legislature and the Governor's office made their cases in front of the State Supreme Court on Monday in one of the lame duck cases.This particular case is the one that concerns how the state handles legal settlements. G O P private attorney Misha Tseytlin says the bill is exercising the same authority the Legislature has over the operations of the state agencies.
"That is exactly what most laws do. They say: execute this law, don't execute that law, Department of Corrections do this, Department of Natural Resources do that."
Governor Evers private attorney Lester Pines says the Legislature doesn't get a free pass on the legitimacy of their actions just because they passed a law.
"It is also the governor who is presumed to be acting constitutionally when he says the legislature has interfered with my authority."
Pines says this ought to be the same sort of decision where the Supreme Court struck down legislative oversight of the Court.
"The court didn't say that 'well we presume that that legislation is constitutional, therefor we can't overcome that presumption of constitutionality,' you just said 'no!'"
Tseytlin says modifying what state agencies can and cannot do is just what the Legislature does.
"This is just the core power the legislative has over agencies, which is to give and take away their duties."
Justices are expected to have a final ruling on the case by next summer.
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