AP: Tension Grows Among Oklahoma Courts, Legislature
Tension grows among Oklahoma courts, legislature
By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Long-running tension among Oklahoma’s three branches of government boiled over last week with Gov. Mary Fallin accusing the state Supreme Court of overstepping its bounds in a death penalty case and some Republican lawmakers so upset by the court that they called for the impeachment of justices.
The latest tumult arose after the high court’s decision to briefly delay the pending execution of two death row inmates, though the rift between the Supreme Court on one side and the Republican governor and legislature on the other has been growing for some time.
“It’s a government of divided power, and of course powerful people tend to covet still more power,” said Randall Coyne, a University of Oklahoma law professor who specializes in capital punishment and constitutional law.
A major role of the Supreme Court is to determine the constitutionality of laws approved by the Legislature, and since Republicans took control of the statehouse in the late 2000s, legislators have passed numerous laws later shot down by the court as unconstitutional. Just last year the court ruled a plan to cut the income tax and repair the state Capitol was an unconstitutional example of logrolling, or having more than one topic in a bill, and also shot down a sweeping civil justice reform measure that prompted Fallin to call the Legislature into a special session.