Indiana’s governor said Friday he’s waiting to decide on whether to continue his court fight against a new law giving state legislators more power to intervene during public health emergencies.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb has maintained that the law violates a state constitutional provision allowing only the governor to call the Legislature into a special session after its regular annual session wraps up by the end of April.
A Marion County judge, however, upheld the law Thursday in ruling that the state constitution gives the General Assembly the authority to determine when and for how long it will meet.
Holcomb said he and his attorneys were reviewing the ruling and hadn’t decided if they will appeal to a higher court.
“I’m very open-minded at this,” Holcomb said. “We’ve got time to make a very informed decision and we’ll use as much time as we need.”
The Republican-dominated Legislature advanced the law following criticism from conservatives over the statewide mask mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions that Holcomb imposed by executive order.
Republican legislative leaders have maintained that the measure wasn’t “anti-governor” and praised Holcomb’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Though we have disagreed with the governor regarding this law, we have and will continue to work with him and his office in order to serve the people of Indiana,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray of Martinsville said in a statement Friday.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
The only reason to is to make the law firm richer, because the supposed conservative charlatans won’t to a darn thing to control their buddy Holcomb.
Remind me, Eric, why didn’t they simply end the emergency powers instead of passing this new law?
The Indiana Legislature is so awful the concept they can meet however and whenever they want is truly frightening. They cause enough ruckus on their current schedule.
Based upon what is being reporting, I believe there are two issues at play here and the judge actually addressed the wrong one. The legislature did not adjourn the regular session this year with the intention to come back after a break to address the redistricting which all knew needed to be done this year; this maneuver could be pulled in any year unfortunately.
The second is the law passed by the legislature that state they can call a special session any time. This would come after the closing of a session. This is the law that is actually counter to the Indiana constitution and should have been what it ruled upon.
Question: if you can do what the legislature did this year with only taking a break in the session and coming back later then why would they ever need the new law?
Best I can tell, the claim is that another set of constitutional amendments back in the 70’s and 80’s gave the power to the legislators to meet whenever they want come back whenever they chose.
Will be interesting to see how the Indiana Supreme Court rules.