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Friday, September 09, 2005

Law - 7th Circuit affirms CD Illinois ruling dismissing suit to stop Illinois base closure

Updating the ILB entry from Wednesday on the federal district court ruling (CD Ill.), the Chicago Tribune reports today:

SPRINGFIELD -- A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attempt to stop the government from moving National Guard fighter jets to Indiana.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that Blagojevich was premature in protesting a commission's recommendation that Springfield's 183rd Fighter Wing and its 15 jets move to Fort Wayne as part of a nationwide reorganization of the U.S. military.

Two justices, with one dissenting, said Blagojevich could come back to court if the change is approved by President Bush and Congress. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the state plans to do that.

The Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which is recommending closing bases and shifting duties of military units around the nation, faced a Thursday deadline to make its recommendations to Bush. Also on Thursday, the Bush administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and protect the federal panel's recommendations. * * *

Federal courts in Pennsylvania and Connecticut have sided with governors who argued they should have been consulted. A Missouri court rejected a similar argument there, as did a judge in Massachusetts.

In Illinois, Justices Frank Easterbrook and Diane Sykes said the federal law Blagojevich cited does not govern preliminary communications with the president. If the plan is approved by Bush and Congress, "then the decision will at that point be 'final' and reviewable before the National Guard unit is moved or changed," they wrote.

Holding up BRAC's recommendations to Bush could upset the timetable for making the base-closing decisions, they said.

Justice Ilana Diamond Rovner dissented, saying stopping the recommendations from going to Bush might be Blagojevich's last chance to object and that holding up the matter for a few days to decide the issue would not hurt the process because Bush has 15 days to send the report to Congress.

An AP story today in Newsday gives more details, including:
The report arrived at the White House only after the commission, in response to a federal judge's ruling, withdrew a recommendation that called for moving the 103rd Fighter Wing's jets from Connecticut's Bradley Air National Guard base to Massachusetts. * * *

On a day filled with a flurry of legal maneuvers by states hoping to save their bases targeted for closure, federal judges in Tennessee and Connecticut had blocked the panel from relocating units at local Air National Guard bases.

In the Tennessee case, U.S. District Judge Robert Echols temporarily barred the commission from recommending relocation of the Nashville-based 118th Airlift Wing. A federal appeals court overturned his ruling.

But the Connecticut injunction stood. U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello found that the governor would suffer significant hardship if the state's lawsuit over the Bradley Air National Guard Base wasn't considered immediately.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rejected the Bush administration's request for intervention in the Connecticut case. The administration contends the panel's recommendations are not reviewable by courts.

Ginsburg, a Clinton appointee who handles appeals from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said a federal appeals court in New York was dealing with the Connecticut case and "this court should not short-circuit the normal review process absent a showing of irreparable harm stronger than that presented here."

That prompted the commission to strike the section covering the Bradley Air National Guard base in Connecticut just hours before sending the report to the president. The commission said it would restore the recommendation if the Connecticut court's injunction "is later vacated, reversed, stayed or otherwise withdrawn."

When yesterday's 7th Circuit opinion in Blagojevich v. Rumsfeld is available, it will be posted here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 9, 2005 07:02 AM
Posted to General Law Related