The plaintiffs in the toll road litigation have filed their appeal. The Plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the toll road privatization legislation. The trial court judge told them they’d have to pay to play — telling them to post a $1.8 billion bond before they were allowed to litigate the issue of whether the legislation was within the constitutional authority of the General Assembly.
I have questions about the judge’s decisions interpreting the public lawsuit statute under which such a bond is authorized. But, that aside, I wonder about the validity of legislation that makes a Constitutional challenge too expensive for anybody to reasonably sustain. Because the sale involves so much money, nobody can get a court to determine whether the transaction was actually within the authority of the General Assembly.
The deck always seems stacked against citizens. As a plaintiff in the lawsuit, I am wondering whether and when justice will be served.
We filed our appeal on Monday, June 5, about 10:30. At 5:10, our lawyers received a fax from the ISC notifying us that they had taken jurisdiction of the case. Notably, defendants never served plaintiffs with their motion to bypass the Court of Appeals.
Without a conference, plaintiffs were ordered to file our 30 page brief in response to the trial court’s 72 page ruling by 5:00 Thursday. Defendants must file their brief by 3:00 Monday. Plaintiffs must file our reply brief by 10:00 Tuesday. Oral arguments begin at 1:30 Tuesday.
Because of the tight time lines, our attorneys will be unable to file a reply brief since they must prepare oral arguments. Where is the justice?