{"id":368656,"date":"2022-05-18T06:06:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T20:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=368656"},"modified":"2022-05-18T06:06:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T20:06:46","slug":"torres-suit-vs-jgo-is-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-suit-vs-jgo-is-dismissed\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres\u2019 suit vs JGO is dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge pro tem Timothy Bellas has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres against the House of Representatives\u2019 Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee over its decision to hold him in contempt. <\/p>\n

After over a month since hearing the arguments of both parties regarding the JGO\u2019s motion to dismiss Torres\u2019 lawsuit, Bellas issued his ruling on the matter yesterday, ruling in favor of the JGO by dismissing the suit with prejudice. That means the case cannot be refiled. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe motion to dismiss is granted because there are no additional facts which could defeat the legislative immunity involved. The dismissal is granted with prejudice,\u201d Bellas stated. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Bellas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Bellas\u2019 order, one of the main reasons the court granted the JGO\u2019s motion to dismiss was because it found that the committee can invoke legislative immunity because the court found that the subpoena issued falls within the \u201clegitimate legislative sphere\u201d protected by the Speech or Debate Clause. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn determining whether a particular activity falls within the \u2018legitimate legislative sphere,\u2019 a court must determine whether the activity is an integral part of the deliberative and communicative processes by which [House lawmakers] participate in committee proceedings. In the case at hand, the committee believes that the governor\u2019s testimony is necessary to enact remedial legislation that would curtail improper and wasteful spending of public funds,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Bellas stated that it is plain from the face of the complaint and the matters taken under judicial notice that the JGO was acting \u201cwithin the sphere of legitimate legislative activity,\u201d and the court need not inquire into the committee\u2019s motives.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Torres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe subpoena covers seven subject areas that all relate to the governor\u2019s expenditure of public funds and use of government personnel and resources. Not only are these topics ones \u2018on which legislation could be had,\u2019 there is in fact pending legislation relating to more than one of these expenditures,\u201d Bellas said.<\/p>\n

As for Torres\u2019 argument that legislative immunity under the Speech and Debate Clause is not applicable to the JGO as a whole, Bellas said because the clause\u2019s central purpose is to provide legislative independence, the JGO may invoke the clause as a whole. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe court reads the language of Article II, Section 12 of the NMI Constitution broadly to effectuate its purpose of protecting legislative independence. The court finds no compelling reason to limit the protections of the Speech or Debate Clause to individual legislators only, and therefore the House standing committee may invoke legislative immunity as an affirmative defense from suit,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The court also found that Torres, in his capacity as governor of the CNMI, is not immune to subpoenas issued by the legislative branch as he previously argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court will also address the governor\u2019s argument that legislative immunity cannot trump the separation of powers doctrine, thus making him immune [to] being subpoenaed. It is true that the separation of powers doctrine safeguards the independence of each branch of the government and protects it from domination and interference by the others. Nevertheless, separation of powers does not mean that a sitting executive may never be called to task by the Legislature,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge pro tem Timothy Bellas has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":363405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[8223],"class_list":["post-368656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-jgo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}