Both sides have argued. Now we wait for the decision.
Both Attorney General Larry Long and the Sutton legal team have made their arguments to the South Dakota Supreme Court. Now it's time for the waiting game to begin as we start the vigil waiting for a signal on whether the Sutton groping allegations can be resolved or not.
Check out the latest at Argus Leader.com:
Check out the latest at Argus Leader.com:
In Wednesday’s filing, Long called Circuit Court Judge David Gienapp’s actions in stopping potential Senate hearings “truly extraordinary” and asked the Supreme Court to allow the proceedings to take place.Read it all here in the Argus Leader.
Long also argued that Gienapp doesn’t have the authority to stop the Senate from acting.
The Senate, Long wrote, “is unaware of any assignment by the chief justice to expand the circuit court’s jurisdiction beyond the Third Judicial Circuit.”
Long’s response came one day after Sutton’s lawyers contended the Senate has no constitutional authority to expel a member unless that person has been convicted of a serious crime. Sutton has not been charged or convicted of any crime.
Attorneys Michael Butler and Patrick Duffy also said the Senate can’t simply act to deprive voters of their elected representative without judicial oversight.
Duffy on Wednesday said there are fundamental differences in how both sides see the case.
“We’ve got two briefs; both say polar opposite views of the power of the Senate,” Duffy said. “We’ll wait to see what the court says, because that’s what the law is.”
Comments
You should ask Sutton - his lawyers are the ones who cried foul over expulsion. That's their stated reason for asking Judge Gienapp to stop the hearing - because they read the law as saying the Senate has no right to expel Sutton.