When Legislators Try to Play Judge

This is what happens when legislators try to play judge.

The House Redress of Grievances Committee is a special panel created by Speaker O’Brien based on a clause in the New Hampshire Constitution giving citizens the right “to request of the legislative body, by way of petition or remonstrance, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer.”

Thursday, the committee heard a complaint from David Johnson, who is asking the Legislature to give him custody of his daughter, impeach four judges and two marital masters and remove the authority of the chief justice of the Supreme Court over the judicial system.

After hours of testimony, chairman Rep. Paul Ingbretson ”remembered” that he is an acquaintance of Johnson and, by the way, he personally supervised visits between Johnson and his daughter once a week for a year.

Ingbretson said his discussions with O’Brien and Rich Lambert, executive administrator for the Legislative Ethics Committee, assured him that he was not violating the legislative ethics guidelines. Those rules define a conflict of interest as a situation where a lawmaker or immediate family member would gain financially, Lambert said yesterday.

O’Brien said in an interview that he advised Ingbretson to continue with the hearing because nothing in the case suggests a “conflict in fact.”

Before Speaker O’Brien began pursuing his vision of legislative supremacy, there was no need for the legislature to have judicial recusal guidelines. Now I guess there is. Or, we could leave the work of the judiciary to the judiciary.