Arizona Supreme Court: Legislature Violated The Arizona Constitution

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This is news? The Arizona Supreme Court today expanded on it's June 23 ruling regarding transmittal of the state budget to the Governor. State's high court weighs in on bills held from governor:

The Arizona Supreme Court ordered Thursday that the Legislature immediately relinquish to the governor all bills that have received final passage, but did not specify exactly how quickly the transmittal must occur.

The ruling would appear to bar future Legislatures from refusing to send the governor bills that have passed the House and Senate, as happened this year.

In an expanded, 22-page majority opinion written by Justice Scott Bales, the high court found that lawmakers violated the state Constitution during the last regular session when they approved a budget proposal for fiscal 2010 but declined to send it to Gov. Jan Brewer for nearly a month.

According to Thursday's opinion, future bills that the Legislature has approved must be sent to the governor for her to sign or veto "with no more delay than is reasonably necessary to complete any ministerial tasks," such as the signing of the bills by legislative officers.

The opinion follows and further explains the court's June 23 ruling in the case of Brewer vs. Burns.

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Under the court's Thursday ruling, lawmakers will have no such leeway in the future.

Now that this issue is settled, maybe the Court can addrress the misfeasance in office of the Legislature and Governor for being in violation of the Arizona Constitution every day since July 1 for not having enacted a balanced budget.