Elimination of Floyd judgeship subject of lawsuit

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

FRANKFORT — The elimination of a circuit judgeship in Floyd County resulted in a lawsuit filed last week in Franklin Circuit Court. The suit by former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Janet Stumbo and Floyd County Bar Association President Brandis Bradley claims action in 2018 to eliminate the Division II seat in Floyd Circuit Court effective in 2023 was unconstitutional. The suit names Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne, Senate President Robert Stivers and Secretary of State Michael Adams as defendants. “This lawsuit is not complicated,” the complaint says. “It alleges that the General Assembly violated the clear wording of the Kentucky Constitution when, without proper certification from the Kentucky Supreme Court, it eliminated Division II, the 31st Judicial District of the Floyd County Circuit Court. “The Kentucky Constitution states that the General Assembly has only the ‘power upon certification by the Kentucky Supreme Court to ‘reduce’ a judicial district.’ As this pleading will describe, no such certification existed when the General Assembly passed House Bill 348, which had the net effect to ‘reduce’ the 31st Judicial District from three circuit courts to two circuit courts. (Two circuit courts and a family court.” House Bill 348 was signed into law by then-Gov. Matt Bevin on April 2,2018, according to the lawsuit. “At the time that it was signed, no certification from the Supreme Court existed. Subsequently, on June 7, 2018, the Kentucky Supreme Court responded by entering an order to ‘eliminate one circuit division in the 31st Judicial Circuit, Floyd Circuit Court, effective on January 2, 2023,” the suit says. The Division II judgeship is currently held by Thomas Smith. Stumbo and Bradley are eligible to be candidates for the position, the suit says, and Bradley intends to run in 2022. “The plaintiffs allege that House Bill 348 not only violated the Kentucky Constitution, but also, given the failure to follow the procedures described elsewhere in this complaint, serves as an example of special legislation that improperly targeted the 31st Judicial District,” the suit says. “Section 59(1) of the Kentucky Constitution prohibits the General Assembly from enacting special legislation that affects the practice of law in circuit courts.”