AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage has asked the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to arbitrate his dispute with the Legislature about whether 65 bills have become law.
The request, made Friday, follows recent controversy over dozens of bills lawmakers and most independent legal authorities — including Attorney General Janet Mills — say have become law because LePage missed his 10-day window of opportunity to act on them.
The governor delivered vetoes of 65 of those bills to lawmakers on Thursday, saying his opportunity to nix the bills had not passed. Both Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, and House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, dismissed the vetoes as out of order.
“The governor cannot veto a law,” Eves said Thursday.
LePage on Friday said the question must be decided by the law court.
“Now that the Legislature has refused to consider the vetoes, my constitutional duty as governor to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ is in question,” LePage said in a news release. “I must know whether my vetoes stand.”
LePage has argued that by passing a temporary adjournment order on June 30, the Legislature prevented him from delivering vetoes, triggering a provision in the Maine Constitution that allows him to hold bills until the Legislature reconvenes.
Mills said in a written opinion that the constitutional provision cited by LePage applies only to final adjournment, not a temporary recess such as the one lawmakers passed on June 30.
The Legislature finally adjourned on Thursday, after passing an order to adjourn “sine die,” Latin for “without day,” a phrase signifying that the session has been closed for good.
In his request to the Law Court, LePage asked three questions:
— Which type of adjournment prevents the return of a bill from the governor?
— Did the Legislature trigger the three-day provision in the Constitution?
— Were the 65 vetoes presented on Thursday valid?
All three of those legal questions point to the same fundamental issue:
“I must know whether the 65 bills have become law,” LePage wrote in the letter to Chief Justice Leigh Saufley.
In the letter, LePage also said the Legislature failed to extend its session past the June 17 statutory adjournment date. The House and Senate both voted on June 18 to extend the session, and another such vote was taken on June 24, but LePage questioned whether those extensions were valid.
In a prepared statement Friday, Eves said LePage’s arguments amounted to “legal gymnastics” and urged the court to “take quick and decisive action to ensure these laws are enforced.”
“When the governor missed his deadline to veto the bills, they became law, in accordance with the Constitution, history and precedent,” Eves said. “The delay in enforcing these laws will only hurt the people who sent us to Augusta to represent them. ”
The Law Court has the option to take up LePage’s questions, if it deems the dispute to represent a “solemn occasion” that requires its judgment, or it can dismiss them.
House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, is the only legislative leader to have unequivocally sided with LePage during the veto dispute. On Friday, he said the Law Court should provide “clarity” on the issue.
“Should the Law Court side with the governor, House Republicans stand ready to return to the capital to vote up or down on these bills,” Fredette said in a news release.
A spokeswoman for the court said Friday that LePage’s request had been received but could not offer a timeline as to whether or when the justices would proceed.
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