home

Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court Ruling

By TChris, Section Court Decisions
Posted on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 09:50:24 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

by TChris

When a state legislature dislikes a court's interpretation of a state law, the legislature is always free to change the law. But is it free to pass a law that expressly "nullifies" a court decision without violating the doctrine of separation of powers?

The Delaware Supreme Court construed state law to require offenders who were sentenced to life to be released after 45 years. The decision applies only to offenders who were sentenced before the state changed its sentencing laws in 1990.

Before 1990, a sentence of life with parole was considered a 45-year term for purposes of calculating good time credit and setting a parole date. Prosecutors maintained that if an inmate was repeatedly denied parole, he could be held until he died.

Claiming that the court's ruling would require the immediate release of 200 (mostly elderly) inmates, the state legislature unanimously passed a bill that purports to declare the court decision "null and void."

The bill now goes to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner for approval. Minner acknowledged the state may be setting itself up for prisoner lawsuits in attempting to nullify the court ruling.

No kidding. The notion that a legislature can pass a law that nullifies any court decision it doesn't like is antithetical to a political system that relies on the checks and balances afforded by coequal branches of government. Legislatures have the power to change the law; they don't have the power to change (or ignore) court decisions, even decisions that are politically unpopular.

< Officer Pleads Guilty to Beating Suspect | Guantanamo Sexcapades Revealed >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court Ruling | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 11:08:08 AM EST
    Its called, "Third world laws" we, in fact are ruled not by laws but by guys with money and a political agendas and its all about betrayal of the ideals of laws and so called Order. Anyway most Right have been Nulify already.

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#2)
    by nolo on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 11:21:51 AM EST
    Wow. The legal problems this poses are pretty significant. Aside from any separation of powers issue, the effect of the legislature's ruling is to retroactively change the law setting penalties -- and that poses its own set of constitutional issues. In fact, that's what I see as being the real problem. Legislatures and courts disagree as to the meaning of statutory law all the time. If a legislature thinks that the court has misinterpreted a statute, the legislature is then free to amend the statute to make its meaning more clear. But if the amendment is going to have an effect on substantive rights, the amendment can't be retroactive.

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#3)
    by David in NY on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 11:23:02 AM EST
    Might offend federal separation of powers principles (although I'm not positive about that), but those principles don't govern the make-up of the Delaware government, and Delaware doesn't necessarily follow those same rules in its constitution. It might have more or less stringent rules with respect to separation of powers. I think the biggest problem may be an ex post facto violation. If what the Delaware court did was to construe the law as always having been that prisoners had to be released after 45 years, then that's the law that applies to the prisoners' cases. The legislature can't now extend those sentences; to do so would violate the federal constitution's ex post facto clause. But more facts are necessary to draw a firm conclusion.

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 01:38:57 PM EST
    The Radical Right mentioned the possibility of doing this at the Federal level several times during the campaign. Haven't heard anything about it recently though. Cranky

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#5)
    by wishful on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 02:33:44 PM EST
    The ex post facto thing echos loudly in my ears too. I'm pretty sure that the judicial branch is de facto no longer co-equal. See last 20 or so years of sentencing guidelines. I think Feeney broke the camel's back in its egregious smackdown of judges discretion. Note the crazy squaking and posturing post-Blakely about how the legislature is going to keep those silly judges from judging. Interestingly, many judges seem to be pretty meekly going along, qualifying any negative responses apologetically.

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 02:43:03 PM EST
    Ex post facto. And even the Delaware Supremes can't declare the U.S. Constitution null and void.

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 07:33:17 PM EST
    The text of the bill is here, and them's fightin' words: ...the General Assembly asserts its right and prerogative to be the ultimate arbiter of the intent, meaning, and construction of its laws and to vigorously defend them; therefore, the members of the General Assembly declare that the decision of the Delaware Supreme Court in the case of Evans v. State, 2004 WL 2743546 (Del. Supr.), is null and void. Because the Court's order in Evans v. State has not yet been put into effect, the sentence of any prisoner who may have been affected by the Order, had it gone into effect, is deemed to be uninterrupted and is not subject to an ex post facto attack. I'll bet the Delaware Supreme Court will also enjoy the admonition to "use the utmost restraint when interpreting or construing the laws of this State."

    Re: Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court (none / 0) (#8)
    by cp on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 07:34:58 PM EST
    last time i checked, delaware had voluntarily ratified the u.s. constitution of 1789, agreeing to abide by all of its provisions. "separation of powers" is one of them. however, since the blowhards in the u.s. congress have recently threatened essentially the same thing, perhaps that gave courage to the delaware state legislature to be the test bunny.

    Delaware Legislature Seeks to 'Nullify' Court Ruling | 8 comments (8 topical)