AL Supreme Court upholds double dipping ban
A hearty round of applause for the right decision…
The Alabama Supreme Court, reversing a lower court, today upheld the state Board of Education’s policy against so-called “double-dipping” by state legislators.
The board had adopted the policy on Aug. 23, 2007, but a group of lawmakers, most of them employed in the two-year system, filed suit the next day.
The board’s policy would allow it to not hire legislators and require current legislators on staff to decide at the end of their terms whether to stay in the Legislature or keep their jobs in the system.
A Montgomery County circuit judge temporarily blocked the implementation of the policy, saying it conflicted with provisions of the Alabama Administrative Procedure Act. The judge issued a final order on Nov. 18, 2008.
Good timing for former two-year chancellor Bradley Byrne, who implemented the ban, as he starts his gubernatorial bid.
Wow, I suppose next step will be Federal Court on a laundry list of civil rights violations and the usual mind games, distortions and earnest insincerity the double dippers have displayed so far.
No doubt Walt – but the ban is long overdue and one small step towards Ethics Reform
According to articles in other newspapers, the Supreme Court only overruled Judge Hadwick’s lower court decision on one point and sent the case back to his court. In the Montgomery Advertiser it says, “The ruling Friday sent the case back to Hardwick for further proceedings. That could produce a new round of legal challenges to the school board’s policies.”
Apparently the fat lady hasn’t yet sung.