GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres, through his legal counsel Gil Birnbrich and the Banes Horey Berman & Miller law firm, has opposed the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations’ motion to dismiss his lawsuit.
The governor has asked the Superior Court to find the subpoena issued by the committee invalid and unlawful.
House legal counsels Joseph L.G. Taijeron and Brendan Layde, for their part, told the court that the subpoena served on Torres has a valid legislative purpose.
In their 19-page opposition to the motion to dismiss, the governor’s lawyers noted that the dispute “presents significant constitutional issues that are without precedent in the CNMI or indeed anywhere in the United States or its individual states, commonwealths, or territories.”
They asked the court to deny the JGO committee’s motion to dismiss.
“The central question is whether a legislative committee, in aid of a purported legislative purpose, has the power to command the chief executive, duly elected by the people of the Commonwealth, to sit before it at the time, date, and place of its choosing, to give testimony on subjects selected by the committee, and remain doing so for as long as the committee desires, with a potential consequence for noncompliance of arrest and detention or criminal prosecution and incarceration,” the governor’s lawyers said.
In his complaint, the governor asserted that he has immunity from such a subpoena pursuant to the CNMI Constitution’s separation of powers principles.
He also asserted that the committee lacks a legitimate legislative purpose for the subpoena.
In their motion to dismiss filed on Jan. 11, 2022, the House counsels said the JGO’s investigation was a fact-finding one “to inform the House’s legislative judgment, [and was] not an exercise of law enforcement authority.”
The House counsels said the legislative investigatory power permits the Legislature “to inquire into and publicize corruption, maladministration or inefficiency in agencies of the government.”
For their part, Torres’ attorneys said the Immunity Clause is meant to prevent interference with the legislative duties of individual members.
“It shields only individual legislators from certain legal actions arising from the exercise of their duties as legislators. The Governor has not named any individual House members as defendants, and he is not seeking a remedy personally against any individual legislator for his or her conduct,” the governor’s attorneys stated.
“Even if the clause is read to shield the entire Legislature as such, it does not deprive this Court of jurisdiction to adjudicate this critical separation of powers dispute between two co-equal branches of government,” they added.
As for the House counsels’ argument that the governor’s complaint must be dismissed due to the fact that the attorney general is not named as a defendant, Torres’ lawyers said: the AG is not a necessary party.
“This court can grant complete relief among the existing parties — the standard under Rule 12(b)(7) and Rule 19 — without bringing the Attorney General into the lawsuit. The Attorney General has not claimed an interest, and indeed has no interest, relating to this lawsuit that would be impaired or impeded by the court’s disposition of this matter, which solely concerns the Governor and the House Standing Committee.”
The Republican governor was found by the Democrat-led House JGO committee in contempt of a legislative subpoena for refusing to appear before the panel which was investigating his public expenditures.
The JGO committee then forwarded the contempt complaint to the AG for prosecution.
AG Edward Manibusan has not initiated or moved for prosecution, the governor’s attorneys noted.
On Dec. 16, 2021, CNMI Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandro C. Castro appointed former Judge Timothy H. Bellas to be the judge pro tempore in the governor’s lawsuit after Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja, Associate Judges Wesley Bogdan, Kenneth Govendo, Teresa Kim-Tenorio and Joseph N. Camacho recused themselves from the case.
Pro Tempore Judge Timothy Bellas has scheduled a hearing for March 31, 2022 at 9 a.m.
