Suit vs Babauta, Tinian lawmakers dismissed

The Superior Court dismissed Monday a lawsuit against Gov. Juan N. Babauta and members of the Tinian delegation on the ground of legislative immunity.

The Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission had sued the governor and members of the delegation—Senate President Joaquin Adriano, senators Joseph M. Mendiola and Henry H. San Nicolas, and House Rep. Norman S. Palacios—over the adoption of Tinian Local Law 14-1, which it wants declared invalid.

The local law effectively amended the Revised Casino Act, which allowed the awarding of a casino license to hotels with 100 rooms instead of the minimum requirement of 300 rooms.

The amendments also sought to reduce the casino license application fee from $200,000 to not less than $5,000, as well as permit and regulate credit wagers in the casino, among others.

Despite the adoption of the local law that would allow major changes to the Revised Casino Act to entice investors, the TCGCC filed a civil action assailing the validity of the law to assert that the changes had already been adopted through an earlier popular initiative.

Besides filing the petition that seeks to declare the local law invalid, the TCGCC separately filed with the court a separate petition that seeks judicial declaration that the results of the Nov. 1, 2003 popular initiative caused the adoption of changes to the Casino Act. The latter petition, however, remains pending.

Associate Judge Ramona Manglona dismissed the former petition on the ground of legislative immunity.

“Apart from its basis in common law, the doctrine of legislative immunity is also founded in the Commonwealth Constitution, which provides at Article II, Section 12 that ‘a member of the legislature may not be questioned in any other place for any written or oral statement in the legislature,’” Manglona said.

“Were the court to permit a case that solely contested the act of legislating to go forward, it would infringe upon the constitutionally-mandated powers of the legislative branch, hindering the legislative process as a whole, and interfering with the democratic process itself. Such a precedent would also likely result in a flood of litigation with each legislative session, straining the resources of our judiciary,” she added.

Manglona explained that the actions of the members of the delegation in passing the local measure and Babauta’s signing of the enrolled bill into law are all part of the legislative process.