AG Lynch strongly defends decision to challenge constitutionality of Deepwater law - 7/9/10
Publicado el 2010-07-15 09:08:54 [0 comentarios]
Mike Healey [MHealey@riag.ri.gov]
State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Department of Attorney General
150 South Main Street, Providence, RI 02903
Patrick C. Lynch, Attorney General
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Michael J. Healey
Tel: (401) 274-4400, ext. 2234
<http://www.riag.ri.gov/>
July 9, 2010
PRESS STATEMENT
AG Lynch strongly defends decision to challenge constitutionality of Deepwater law
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued the following statement today concerning the harshly personal criticism leveled at him Wednesday, July 7, by Governor Carcieri over Lynch’s decision to challenge the constitutionality of the recently enacted Deepwater law, which will be reviewed shortly by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC):
“As evidenced by the harshly critical statement he issued this week on the motion papers my office has filed before the PUC, Governor Carcieri has not read my 40-page brief or any of the more than 75 legal precedents it cites in support of my position. The result, not surprisingly, is a complete mischaracterization of the content of my argument.
“The Governor accuses me of making statements that ‘misrepresent facts’ about the selection process, when, in reality, the factual summary portion of my brief essentially quotes the PUC’s own orders. Perhaps what’s gotten the Governor so steamed is his knowledge that this law, and the backroom deals that produced it, are so rancid that many Rhode Islanders join me in seeing it as an insider deal. Focusing on the recently passed law itself, our brief does point out that the era of special legislation conferring privileges on a few connected individuals is over. It points out the following provision of the state Constitution:
All laws, therefore, should be made for the good of the whole; and the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among its citizens.
“The brief also points out that in November of 2004, the electorate approved the Separation of Powers amendment, which ushered in fundamental changes to our Constitution and, for the first time in Rhode Island’s history, clearly and explicitly established three separate and distinct branches of government. These reforms included sweeping away the practice of enacting special laws -- an institutional vice that most state constitutions banned long ago and that one court has called ‘the abuse of granting special legislative favors to the few’ that ‘should not be tolerated.’
“In my seven and a half years of leading this department, we have never challenged the constitutionality of a law that has passed the General Assembly and been signed by the Governor. Nonetheless, it is the traditional role of the attorneys general throughout the United States to enforce constitutional safeguards against special laws. Otherwise, those clauses in state constitutions would be toothless. Again, I refer the Governor to a reading of my brief, which documents this. I am certain that the Conservation Law Foundation, a prestigious independent organization, also felt forced to act when it challenged this pre-arranged deal, which will bring only a minuscule amount of wind power to Rhode Island at the expense of real, long-term green energy in all its forms.
“On the merits, I believe that the Deepwater bill ran roughshod over the 2004 Separation of Powers Amendment and raises important constitutional questions that are far, far bigger than Governor Carcieri, and far bigger even than this $400 million boondoggle -- which, as even Deepwater’s executives have testified, will create only six permanent jobs. The legal merits alone drove my decision. Nothing else.”
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Categorias: PRESS RELEASES / Comunicados de Prensa