Judge signals quick decision in education secretary lawsuit, with Vermont Supreme Court likely to weigh in
The judge considering a lawsuit over the governor’s reappointment of Interim Education Secretary Zoie Saunders signaled a decision could arrive as soon as today.
Sens. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central, and Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, sued Gov. Phil Scott and Saunders in June over the governor’s decision to reappoint the education secretary immediately after the Vermont Senate voted 19-9 not to confirm Saunders.
The lawmakers have argued that the governor cannot reappoint a secretary in an interim capacity after the Senate has already rejected that appointment in the same biennium. The executive branch said the governor is well within his authority to do so, and that the lawmakers do not have standing to bring a case at all, calling the questions at hand “political.”