Once again, Washington lawmakers sue Inslee over vetoes

[TexasTowelie]

For the second time, Washington lawmakers are suing Gov. Jay Inslee over his use of the veto pen. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Thurston County Superior Court, the Legislature asserts Inslee exceeded his veto power earlier this year when he line-item vetoed parts of the state transportation budget and eliminated a subsection of a low carbon fuels bill.


In the latest chapter of an ongoing separation of powers legal battle, the Washington Legislature has once again decided to file a lawsuit against Gov. Jay Inslee alleging that he abused his veto power.

The litigation stems from line-item and subsection vetoes Inslee made earlier this year when signing into law the state transportation budget and a new low carbon fuel standard, which limits the carbon intensity of transportation fuels sold in Washington to 20 percent below 2017 levels by 2038.

Generally, the governor is limited to vetoing entire bills, entire sections of bills or whole appropriation items in a budget bill.

Last month, in a separate lawsuit, the Washington Supreme Court sided with state lawmakers over Inslee’s previous scalpel-like use of the veto pen, calling cases like this a test of two of the court’s most fundamental duties: “to ‘delineate and maintain the proper constitutional balance between the coordinate branches of our State government with respect to the veto’ and, more broadly, to interpret the constitution faithfully.”

Read more: https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/2021-12-20/once-again-washington-lawmakers-sue-inslee-over-vetoes