A Sutter County Superior Court judge is expected to issue an initial ruling this week in a lawsuit challenging an executive order on voting as well as more than 50 others Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kevin Kiley (R-6), the assemblyman who along with fellow legislator, James Gallagher (R-3), filed the lawsuit in June, told the Northern California Record the goal is to restore the state’s proper constitutional balance.
“How these were enacted was not through the usual legislative process, where lawmakers and the public weigh in,” Kiley said. “Even during a state of emergency our entire system of government should not collapse; the rule of law is never more important than during an emergency.”
The governor has issued 57 executive orders since the onset of the pandemic, Kiley said.
“A number of these have been very harmful; we’ve seen our economy has been doing as badly as any state in the country, and the problem is we have a governor who has declared that the laws of the state of California allow him to rule the state by decrees,” Kiley said. “We feel the law is on our side, so we are hopeful the judge will issue a positive result very soon.”
The Michigan Supreme Court this month ruled against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency executive orders, “because that act is an unlawful delegation of legislative power to the executive branch in violation of the Michigan Constitution.”
The California case was heard Oct. 21 by Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman, who is expected to issue an initial ruling this week.
“Governor Whitmer just had her orders invalidated, which is the potential outcome of our case as well,” Kiley said. “The courts have stepped up to rein in governors that have not acted as prescribed by law, and I think it is past time for that to happen in California as well.”
“We are fighting for the form of government we’re all permitted to under the Constitution, a republican form of government with checks and balances and rule of law.”