From Dayton With Love
Posted by Andy on April 24th, 2007
Former Senator Mark Dayton (D MN) seems to be caught up in a wrongful termination suit before the Supreme Court with a former employee.
(AP) WASHINGTON Senate lawyers took opposite sides Tuesday before the Supreme Court on whether a lawsuit could proceed against the office of a former senator without running afoul of a constitutional provision protecting him from lawsuits for official acts.
The case involves a lawsuit brought in 2003 against then-Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., by a former staff member who claims he was wrongfully fired.
I don’t think Mr. Dayton should have answered the phone this week.
The Senate got involved in the case last month, when it passed a resolution directing its legal counsel to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Hanson. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sponsored the resolution with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Dayton, who left the Senate after one term and is not personally a defendant in the case, scoffed at the Senate’s action in a telephone interview this week.
“The issues being debated here are what the U.S. Constitution says and what the law says,” he said. “It’s not the opinion of 100 senators who pass a unanimous resolution with nobody around and no debate or consideration. That’s just political camouflage. It’s political posturing on the part of the Senate.”
Dayton said he’d be happy to go to trial and prove that Hanson was terminated for poor performance.
Even out of office, Dayton keeps lowering the bar for DFL officials. Dayton, the gift that keeps on giving. I wonder how this will sit with the Big Labor union minded DFL base where the employee is always right.
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