While U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance was heading up a federal grand jury investigation of Attorney General (AG) Troy King, her husband, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Robert Vance, was ordering him to take over the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling.
King announced March 11 that the investigation (of unknown reasons to the public) had ended, but he had until March 22 to respond to the ruling. The task force filed a writ of mandamus (a request for a superior court to order a lower court or official to take a certain action) March 15, asking the Alabama Supreme Court to immediately order Robert Vance to allow special prosecutors appointed by Gov. Bob Riley, including Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, to represent the task force.
In his ruling, Robert Vance cited a “constitutional quagmire” over who should represent the interests of the state. He said King had “assumed a curious stance” in complaining about the task force’s actions while making “no effort to defend the state’s interest in these cases.”
Yet the task force motion states, “The constitution would give the governor ultimate control over this litigation if his directives conflicted with the AG’s. If this case were to raise a conflict between the governor and AG, it would only be because the trial court’s order would have unnecessarily forced that conflict to occur. As of now, there is no conflict.”
Eric Johnston, a Birmingham attorney and president of Citizens for a Better Alabama, said the ruling creates a constitutional conflict.
“The separation of powers doctrine is a check and balance between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and they should not interfere with each other’s authority,” he noted. “This doctrine is violated by the judge instructing the attorney general what to do when King is a member of the executive branch, and that’s what creates the constitutional crisis where none exists.” (TAB)
Share with others: