House Speaker Jim Weiers appeared today at the Arizona Biltmore for the Phoenix Chamber Legislative Wrap Up. Both Mr. Weiers and Senate President Ken Bennett left the event to attend the Arizona Supreme Court oral arguments in the lawsuit, 47th Legislature v. Napolitano.

The Arizona Supreme Court heard legal arguments today and will consider whether Governor Napolitano exceeded her authority when she used a line item for a portion of an employee pay raise bill passed by the Legislature.
The lawsuit, 47th Legislature v. Napolitano, filed by the Republican-led House and Senate in March in response to Ms. Napolitano’s deletion of a section of H2661, an employee pay-raise bill that would have excluded about 200 future government employees from the state’s merit system.
Thomas Crouch, attorney for the Legislature, argued the line-item veto power held by the governor can be used to block entire bills or appropriations with specified and distinct financial figures.
By using unconstitutionally using a veto to stop what he considers a substantive policy, Ms. Napolitano unfairly limited the lawmaking authority of the Legislature, he said.
“The injury to the legislative body is an injury to the right to pass legislation by a majority vote,” he told the five Supreme Court justices.
The lawsuit was an example of the Republicans “playing politics,” said Ms. Napolitano’s attorney Paul Eckstein, and the Arizona Supreme Court should “stay out of the fray” because the Legislature had not even attempted to override the veto.
“They are the ones who are required to exhaust all of the political remedies,” he said.
Also, what was vetoed by Ms. Napolitano qualifies as an appropriation based on a Supreme Court decision reached in Rios v. Symington, a 1992 lawsuit where then-Senate President Pete Rios brought a line-item veto suit against Governor Fife Symington, said Mr. Eckstein.
The effect of the portion of H2662 was “calculable,” since it would alter the way the exempted employees would accrue vacation time, with the result of adding greater expense to the state, he said.
There is no word on when the high court will rule.
About 100 people attended the arguments, including House Speaker Jim Weiers and Senate President Ken Bennett. Both sides were given 20 minutes to make their points.

Filed at June 27, 2 p.m.