Court refuses to overturn local senator's victory
The legal battle over a 1998 law that allows a trash-burning incinerator to be built on Guam has ended in the U.S. Supreme Court. Sen. Vicente Pangelinan and Santa Rita Mayor Joseph Wesley sued Gov. Carl Gutierrez in the local court system, arguing that the bill was pocket vetoed when Gutierrez failed to sign it, while the governor argued that the bill lapsed into law after 30 days.
The same bill also separated the operations of the Superior Court of Guam and the Supreme Court of Guam, taking away the Supreme Court's ability to administer the judicial branch.
"Administration of the Superior Court shall be separate from the Supreme Court and shall not be subject to any authority of the Supreme Court or its justices," Bill 495 states.
The Guam Supreme Court ruled in favor of Pangelinan, but Gutierrez appealed the case to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled in favor of Pangelinan.
Guam Superior Court judges objected to the attempt to strike down the law, joined the case, and appealed the 9th Circuit decision to the nation's highest court.
According to Pangelinan's attorney, Mike Phillips, the U.S. Supreme Court this week denied the Superior Court of Guam's request to have Pangelinan's victory overturned, officially ending the case.
"The case was one of the best constitutional battles ever fought on our island," Phillips said in a written statement yesterday. "In the end, the people of Guam win because we have not only blocked the construction of an incinerator, but we have reaffirmed the power of our local Supreme Court."
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