Bevin asks Kentucky chief justice to remove judge Bevin called a 'hack' from pension case
FRANKFORT -- Lawyers for Governor Matt Bevin renewed their effort Tuesday to get a judge the governor has called an "incompetent hack" removed from a case challenging Kentucky's new pension law, potentially delaying oral arguments in the case.
In a filing with the Kentucky Supreme Court, Bevin's lawyers asked Chief Justice John Minton to remove Franklin Circuit Court Judge Philip Shepherd and appoint a special judge to hear Attorney General Andy Beshear's legal challenge to the pension law, citing the fact that Shepherd is eligible to one day receive a judicial pension.
"The problem with Judge Shepherd deciding the terms and scope of public employees' inviolable contracts is that his pension is likewise protected by an inviolable contract," wrote Stephen Pitt, Bevin's general counsel. "... In sum, a win for the plaintiff's on the inviolable contract is a win for Judge Shepherd on his own inviolable contract."
All judges would not have that conflict, Pitt has argued. Unlike Shepherd, judges who took office after Jan. 1, 2014, don't have a traditional defined-benefits pension and thus aren't affected by the outcome of the lawsuit, Pitt said. He asked Minton, who himself is eligible to receive a judicial pension, to appoint a special judge who took the bench after Jan. 1, 2014.
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article212608179.html
