From 1863 until 2010, any New Hampshire taxpayer could sue the state to block a government action the citizen believed to be illegal. Few did this because we have a republican form of government that is broadly accessible to the people. But the option was there in extreme cases. It should be restored.
In 2010 the state Supreme Court reinterpreted the state law that for more than a century had given taxpayers what is called “standing” to challenge their government in court. The court suddenly decided that standing would not be granted unless a taxpayer could prove that he or she was directly harmed by the law he or she wanted to challenge.
Under this new interpretation, the Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit brought by public education activist Bill Duncan, who had sued to overturn the state’s education scholarship program. We strongly disagreed with Duncan about the constitutionality of the program, but he absolutely should have been able to sue over it. Under the original interpretation of the 1863 law, he would have been.
A state constitutional amendment sponsored by Sen. Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, would restore the taxpayer right to sue the state over illegal laws.
The Supreme Court claims that it would be burdened with lawsuits from average citizens if every taxpayer had standing to sue. But Gilles Bisonnette of the New Hamsphire Civil Liberties Union had it right when he countered during a public hearing last week: “Taxpayer standing does not abuse our political institutions, rather it ensures that citizens can seek relief from those political institutions.
“After all, how strong is a legal right if no one can go to court to enforce it?”
Exactly right. Legislators have to get the wording of the amendment right, but the principle is sound and legislators of both parties should actively join the effort to restore a right the court wrongly revoked.
– See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150125/OPINION01/150129445#sthash.4pl1Utpc.dpuf.
