CHARLESTON — A House of Delegates bill declaring that appeals to the State Supreme Court are a matter of right is on its way to the Senate.
HB 2164 passed 100-0 Wednesday morning, but not before Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, decried the acting Supreme Court putting a halt in October to the summer impeachment proceedings of the five elected justices and what that implies regarding the court’s usurping of legislative authority.
The bill says: “All appeals shall be afforded a full and meaningful review, and an opportunity to be heard, by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and a written decision on the merits shall be issued, as a matter of right.”
Judiciary chair John Shott, R-Mercer explained the bill’s background. Before 2011, he said, the court’s handling of appeals was discretionary. The vast majority of appeals were returned without explanation or decision. From 2006-2010, it received 12,050 appeals and issued decisions on just 607.
Then in 2011, he said, the court changed its rules and now issues a written decision on all appeals. Most are memorandum decisions that rely on existing precedents or state code requiring no interpretation. When it’s breaking new ground, it issues signed opinions.
However, he said, the court could change its mind and revert to the old practice. So this bill puts in code the rule the court established for itself.
While Shott affirmed that the bill would be binding on the court, he shared some of McGeehan’s doubt that the court would take it to heart, given how it halted the impeachment process.
McGeehan said, “We should be worried … about what the ruling from the acting Supreme Court effectively did. … It annihilated the impeachment powers of this House. “
He talked about the legislature’s constitutional authority to make law and how the court overstepped. “We are the last check on the other two branches of government. We cannot let that court decision stand as law, folks.”
It puts into question if the court will honor any bills passed, he said. “I honestly can’t believe that this took place in our state.”
Shott pointed out that this bill has no real bearing on the impeachment issue, but it does declare that Legislature’s policy regarding the right to appeal.
Senate bills passed
At the west end of the Capitol, the Senate sent a handful of bills eastward. Among them:
SB 24, passed 33-0. It requires the Legislature to provide money to local health departments for employee raises whenever the Legislature also approves raises for state employees. Members previously learned that because a bill regarding this died last year, health board employees didn’t get raises when state employees received their 5 percent hike. The estimated cost is less than
$1 million.
SB 27, passed 29-4. It removes the current law restricting Keno lottery games to bars and clubs, opening it up to be offered by any licensed lottery retailer. A 2017 Lottery Commission fiscal note for a previous version of this bill estimated $3 million in new Keno sales, with a net of $592,300 after deducting winnings, retailer commissions and fees.
Opposition was bipartisan, with two Republicans and two Democrats, including Minority Leader Roman Prezioso of Marion, voting no.
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