Can what was done be undone?
Apparently there's a little bit of a debate as to whether or not a special session can be "uncalled." At least according to the Rapid City Journal this morning:
Read it all here.
“Yes, it’s not going to happen,” Schoenbeck said Tuesday when asked about the special session. “It doesn’t change the fact that we’ll still be looking at the page program to make sure we protect future pages. It doesn’t change the fact that the 2007 session has to decide what they’re going to do about Dan Sutton.”
But Rounds spokesman Mark Johnston said Tuesday evening that Rounds hadn’t yet agreed to cancel the session and wasn’t certain that he could.
“There’s no provision in the constitution that allows us to undo a special session,” Johnston said.
The governor wants to be sure he has the authority before he acts, Johnston said. He also must wait for the official letter of request from Senate leaders, which is expected today, Johnston said.
Contacted later Tuesday evening, Schoenbeck said he still expects the governor to determine that he can cancel the special session.
“I believe it doesn’t make any sense to have a meeting when the people who asked for the meeting don’t think there’s a reason for it any more,” he said.
Sutton has not spoken publicly about the allegation since it became public last month. One of his lawyers, Mike Butler of Sioux Falls, has said that Sutton has done nothing wrong. And District 8 voters gave the third-term Democratic incumbent, who also served two years in the South Dakota House, a 57 percent vote of support in the Nov. 7 general election.
Schoenbeck said the page who made allegations about the February incident with Sutton reported it to his father and another page. The page’s father took the information to South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long within two days, Schoenbeck said. Long has confirmed the investigation, which has not resulted in criminal charges against Sutton, but won’t discuss it.
Read it all here.
Comments
Would save us taxpayers a bunde.
A unicameral legislature that meets every other year.
Really, if all they want to do is talk about sex and abortion, can't they do it at home?
A Unicameral that meets every other year (not an election year) and is nonpolitical would be ideal. Non realistic, but ideal!
Schoenbeck is likely to sue if it's canceled. NOBODY takes away his last hurrah. NOBODY takes away his stageshow, his witch hunt, his inquisition, his relevance.
1 - Decided he has the implicit authority to do so, or
2 - Figures no one will care enough to challenge him.
And that makes sense - I cannot think of one good reason to convene the special session at this point. And our Supreme Court is pragmatic enough that I think they would uphold the Governor anyway.