FRANKFORT, KY — The Kentucky Supreme Court docket says the state Judicial Conduct Fee shouldn’t have quickly suspended forty second Circuit Court docket Decide Jamie Jameson in a 3-2 vote in August. In an order entered Friday, the excessive court docket says state legislation requires a minimum of 4 sure votes from JCC members to droop a decide.
“Suspension of a sitting decide by a 3-2 vote stands in disturbing distinction to the language of SCR 4.120, which requires the ‘affirmative vote of a minimum of 4 members [of the Commission]’ earlier than a decide could also be suspended and raises the query, within the thoughts of this Court docket, whether or not Jameson’s non permanent suspension was void ab initio whatever the deserves concerned, on which we don’t opine presently,” the order signed by Chief Justice John Minton Jr. reads. “Ab initio” means “from the start.”
The state Supreme Court docket is ordering the next:
- “The JCC’s movement to dismiss, filed in Case No. 2022-SC-0370-RR, is GRANTED, and that case is dismissed.
- “Jameson’s petition for writ of mandamus, filed on October 18, 2022, as Case No. 2022-SC-0454, is superior on the Court docket’s docket for expedited choice pursuant to CR 76.22.
- “The JCC shall file a response to Jameson’s writ petition no later than Monday, October 31, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., Japanese Time. The JCC’s response shall conform to the necessities of CR 76.36(2). To facilitate expeditious receipt, the Clerk of the Supreme Court docket is directed to distribute this Order by electronic message to the events, and the JCC’s response could also be despatched by electronic message to the Clerk with copy to opposing counsel.”
The state Supreme Court docket agreed with the JCC’s argument in its Sept. 16 movement to dismiss Jameson’s enchantment that “his enchantment from the non permanent suspension order was an impermissible interlocutory enchantment not allowed beneath both Supreme Court docket Rule (SCR) 4.290(2) or present Kentucky case legislation.”
However, the Supreme Court docket’s order says the justices are “deeply troubled” by the truth that Jameson’s suspension was reached with lower than 4 votes in favor.
“The obvious failure of the JCC to observe SCR 4.120 in ordering Jameson’s non permanent suspension demonstrates CR 76.22 “good trigger” to advance our consideration of Jameson’s pending writ petition,” the court docket writes.
As level three of the order explains, the JCC has till 10 a.m. on Oct. 31 to answer Jameson’s writ petition on this case.
The JCC voted to quickly droop Jameson with pay amid accusations of misconduct which were the topic of a number of days of JCC hearings. Friday’s order doesn’t provide an opinion on the accusations the suspension stems from or the deserves of these costs.
Obtain the doc beneath to learn the court docket’s order in full.