Federal judge ponders case against justices
Here’s a link to my full story in today’s Spokesman-Review on the court hearing yesterday in federal court in which a group of Idaho school districts is suing five Idaho Supreme Court justices. The districts say the justices violated the U.S. Constitution by declaring Idaho’s school construction funding system unconstitutional, but then closing the case without requiring any changes. At one point during the hearing, the judge asked the justices’ lawyer if it’d be unconstitutional if the Idaho court were to handle medical malpractice cases by declaring liability, but then leaving it up to the doctor whether or not to pay any damages. After the hearing, Stan Kress, head of the group of school districts that sued, said he liked the analogy. “We’ve got some malpractice going on in the Legislature,” he joked. There’s no decision yet from the judge.