Nov. 29, 2006 — While a lawsuit challenging the Senate's decision to establish a local Supreme Court on St. Croix has yet to be resolved, several proposals on how the court should be run are laid out in this year's Omnibus Authorization Act.
Superior Court Judge Rhys S. Hodge spoke out against a majority of the changes during Wednesday's Committee of the Whole hearing and suggested that all but one provision included in the bill be deleted.
After listening to Hodge's objections, Senate President Lorraine L. Berry said senators would be taking time to hear testimony on all sections of the Omnibus bill before it comes up for a vote during a full session scheduled for Dec. 11.
Berry also made it clear that the proposed changes were submitted by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull and were included in the bill "as a courtesy."
The provisions delete several sections of the V.I. Code, including those:
— requiring Supreme Court justices be "active" members of the V.I. Bar Association;
— requiring that the selection of the Supreme Court's chief justice be conducted via "secret ballot";
— prohibiting judges from practicing law, doing "law business," accepting any public appointments "or employment" for which they will be compensated (this section will be replaced with language that simply prohibits justices from "practicing law" or "being in partnership with an attorney");
–establishing the chief justice as the head of the "V.I. judiciary" and outlining the authority of the chief justice; and
–giving justices the authority to adopt rules for the Supreme Court.
Hodge said he was in favor of only one of the proposed changes, which would allow retired justices, who are collecting an annuity from the Government Employees Retirement System, to practice law within the courts as an employee of the government.
"I agree there is no reason why the knowledge and experience of a retired justice, if desired, should not be available to the government or its agencies upon the justice's retirement," Hodge said.
However, he added that the rest of the changes could have the "unintended consequence" of weakening the authority of the Supreme Court and the authority of the chief justice.
Berry said senators would decide over the next two weeks what sections of the proposed Omnibus bill would be removed before sending a final product to the floor for consideration.
"The section of the bill is a submission from Government House," she added. "And when we were putting everything together, we went through all the things we had pending before the Legislature and brought it forward."
Another bill, the Government Reform and Modernization Act — totaling more than 200 pages — will also be considered during the Senate's session in December. Berry explained that Wednesday's hearing, along with another hearing scheduled for Thursday, was designed to take testimony on the two bills and "alert" senators as to what "we want to be passed and what we don't want to be passed."
Present during Wednesday's hearing was Berry, along with Sens. Craig W. Barshinger, Roosevelt C. David, Liston Davis, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Pedro "Pete" Encarnacion, Juan Figueroa-Serville, Norman Jn Baptiste, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Ronald E. Russell and Celestino A. White Sr.
Sens. Liston Davis, Louis P. Hill, Neville James, Shawn-Michael Malone and Usie R. Richards were absent.
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