Superior Court rules against Newsom, sets stage for Oct. 21 trial

By Bethany Blankley

(The Center Square) — Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman denied Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two Republican state legislators over an executive order related to the state’s election process. The decision sets the stage for a trial scheduled for Oct. 21.

Newsom’s office attempted to have the case thrown out on a “mootness” technicality, which the judge denied Friday.

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, and Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, sued Newsom earlier this year over an executive order that seeks to implement voting by mail for registered California voters as an alternative to in-person voting.

Attorneys for Newsom filed a 33-page “Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings,” arguing the lawsuit was moot because the issue of separation of powers raised in the case was academic and as a matter or law, “flexible” and “pragmatic.”

The legislators argued Newsom was trying to avoid the trial “on a technicality,” and that separation of powers is included in the state constitution for a reason — to prevent a governor from changing and amending laws without the state legislature.

The ruling follows a previous win handed to the legislators in June when a judge granted a preliminary injunction against Newsom, prohibiting the state from mailing millions of mail-in ballot applications to voters.