In response to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the V.I .Commission on Judicial Disabilities violates the separation of powers principle of the three branches of government, Senate President Louis P. Hill announced Friday that he has initiated legislation to address the matter.
"The 28th Legislature understands the urgency of the situation," Hill said in a release. "As it stands, since the ruling, there is no mechanism in place to remove a magistrate judge, or justice for reasons which seriously interfere with the performance of their judicial duties."
Hill said, "If the court’s ruling is correct that the provisions of the existing Act are illegal," the Legislature must assign the "final determination for the judiciary to a Virgin Islands court which has the proper authority for such review."
Hill said he hopes for a productive meeting with Supreme Court Chief Justice Rhys Hodge and members of the 28th Legislature to "work cohesively to solve the question of how decisions of judicial review will take place."
The Circuit Court decision came after more than a year in the federal court and after almost two years of litigation in local courts. It followed the commission’s announcement that it would investigate complaints against Superior Court Judge Leon Kendall.
Though the commission had long been dormant, Kendall’s rulings, largely his bail decisions, stirred public protest and brought the commission to life.
In October 2007, Kendall asked the District Court for an injunction preventing the members of the commission from conducting a hearing to remove him from the Superior Court of the V.I. based on "alleged complaints about his rulings in particular cases …." His filing contended that such hearings would be "unconstitutional" because they would violate the separation of powers in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
District Court Judge Curtis Gomez ruled in a 42-page opinion in January 2008 that the territory’s Revised Organic Act of 1954 gives the V.I. Legislature no authority to remove judges and the Legislature cannot vest that authority in another body, effectively dissolving the commission. On Monday, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 44-page opinion by Appellate Judge Kent Jordan, affirmed Gomez’s ruling.
