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CNMI, US govt lawyers withdraw latest motions
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Posted on Feb 02 2009
Lawyers for the CNMI and the federal government have amicably come to an agreement stemming from the United States filing a brief in the federalization lawsuit that was too long.
Lawyers for both parties have agreed that the United States will file a corrected brief and the CNMI will abandon its motion to strike the memorandum.
Last week, lawyers for the CNMI asked the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. to dismiss the federal government’s latest reply in the federalization lawsuit because a lawyer for the U.S. government filed a 33-page brief without first getting consent. The maximum page limit for such a brief is 25 pages.
Lawyers for the federal government at the time said filing the 33-page brief was a mistake made by the undersigned counsel, who consulted the page limit rules several weeks before and thought it was 35, not 25, according to the U.S.’ reply. Lawyers for the U.S. did not realize the mistake until the CNMI filed their motion to strike, the motion stated.
However, the U.S. has asked the court to grant a page extension and accept the 33-page reply because, the lawyers said, the CNMI brought up additional arguments in their last reply that was not in the initial complaint.
The CNMI agreed to withdraw its motion to strike while the U.S. agreed to withdraw its opposition to motion to strike and request for additional pages.
Both parties also asked the court to set oral arguments in the case.
In September, lawyers for the CNMI filed the initial complaint against the federal government seeking to halt the implementation of U.S. immigration laws to the Commonwealth in June. The latest motion will be the U.S. government’s second request for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
