Over the past several months, California’s Governor Newsom seems to have been mirroring what he may have learned from his buddy Barack “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone” Obama. He’s been stretching the limits of credibility in so many directions with his flurry of unconstitutional emergency orders that seem to be designed to choke the life out of Californians it makes one’s head spin. Barry must be proud.
On Friday, June 12th, Sutter County Superior Court Judge Perry Parker took the side of a proposed order submitted to him by GOP Assemblymen James Gallagher and Kevin Kiley, taking their order without any modifications with regard to certain unconstitutional orders the (not-so-good) governor has issued.
From The Washington Times:
Parker barred Newsom “from further exercising any legislative powers in violation of the California Constitution and applicable statute, specifically from unilaterally amending, altering, or changing existing statutory law or making new statutory law.” He scheduled a hearing for June 26 to consider issuing a preliminary injunction.
“This is a victory for separation of powers,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement. “The governor has continued to brazenly legislate by fiat without public input and without the deliberative process provided by the Legislature. Today the judicial branch finally gave him the check that was needed and that the Constitution requires.”
The state attorney general’s office referred questions to the governor’s office because he is their client in the case.
Newsom spokesman Jesse Melgar said in a statement that, “We are disappointed in this initial ruling and look forward to the opportunity to brief the Court on the issues.”
Newsom broadly and repeatedly used his executive and emergency authority during the first weeks of the pandemic to virtually shut down the state and its economy. He’s had the backing of federal and state courts that have blocked previous challenges to his efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Richard Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, said Parker’s order appears to block executive orders “that would suspend or alter statutory law or further exercise ‘legislative powers.’”
The bottom line is, Newsom has been flexing his pen-pushing muscles beyond belief, and someone FINALLY stood their ground and told him to take a long walk off a short pier, and take his pen with him.
It’s no secret that he’s really pushed waaaaaaaaaay outside the box of constitutionality with his flurry of emergency orders, but rather than to fade away quietly into the fog, many Californians have been speaking up and are making a lot more noise these days as they try to get the state reopened for business.
