Commonwealth of Kentucky Franklin Circuit Court Division I Civil Action No
COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY FRANKLIN CIRCUIT COURT DIVISION I CIVIL ACTION NO. 18-CI-379 - AND - CIVIL ACTION NO. 18-CI-414 COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY ex rel. ANDY BESHEAR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, et al. PLAINTIFFS v. MATTHEW G. BEVIN, in his official capacity as Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. DEFENDANTS PLAINTIFFS’ BRIEF ON THE MERITS The Plaintiffs, the Commonwealth of Kentucky ex rel. Andy Beshear, Attorney General, the Kentucky Education Association (“KEA”), and the Kentucky State Lodge Fraternal Order of the Police (“FOP”), pursuant to the Court’s April 20, 2018 scheduling order, tender the following Brief on the Merits. INTRODUCTION The Plaintiffs are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. In passing Senate Bill 151 (“SB 151”), the Defendants violated critical provisions of Kentucky’s Constitution, Bill of Rights, and state statutes. These provisions are mandatory, and their violation voids SB 151 in its entirety. Accordingly, this Court should grant judgment for the Plaintiffs as a matter of law. On March 29, 2018, the House recessed just after 2:00 p.m., to hold a previously unannounced meeting of the House Committee on State Government. The meeting was held in a small conference room from which the public was excluded. When they arrived, legislators learned that the agenda (also unannounced) contained just one bill: SB 151. SB 151 – an 11-page sewer bill – was called, and then immediately amended, stripping out all of its original sewer language and substituting 291 pages of new legislation purporting to overhaul Kentucky’s public employee retirement systems. SB 151 was then voted out of Committee without public hearings, without an actuarial analysis or fiscal note, and before most legislators could even read the bill.
[Show full text]