More Curious Rulings of the Franklin Circuit
The Franklin Circuit has been ruling that that the General Assembly does not operate in its own time zone. More specifically, it has ruled that bills not delivered to the Governor before midnight April 15th are invalid according to the Constitution.
The Constitution clearly states that April 15th is the last day the legislature is allowed to meet, but there is plenty of room to argue over other details, and the ruling that April 15th is the deadline to deliver bills to the Governor's office raises plenty of questions.
Is April 15th really the time limit to enroll legislation to the Governor's office, or just to vote on legislation, or to enroll it in both chambers? The LRC operates year-round, so which of these actions are actions of the Session, and which are actions of the year-round staff? If the Governor is not in the office to receive enrolled bills, does that mean the Governor can determine the last moment available for legislative action on a bill? Can a Governor scuttle legislation by not having his office open to receive legislation passed on the 15th? If the legislature has jurisdiction over setting time zones, can't they just trump the clock?
The Franklin Circuit most recently ruled that the legislatively-passed six-year road plan (which authorizes which roads to build over the next two years) was invalid. Interestingly, the Circuit ruled that while the Governor is bound not to make changes to the plan, he is bound to the plan he submitted to the legislature at the beginning of session, not the last legislatively-passed road plan. Which raises other questions: Is the Circuit saying that the General Assembly is required to approve or disapprove the Governor's submission? Does not inaction on the Governor's submission equate with disapproval? Can the Governor now forever game the system by submitting his plan late in the session where the legislature doesn't have time to act?
The Franklin Circuit has shown a bias towards Governor Beshear in other opportunities in his term (and perhaps a bias against Governors of the other party in previous administrations). While the deadline for validity of midnight, April 15th makes some sense, very little else does. It will be interesting to see if this ruling suffers the same fate as the last.
