LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 2 (UPI) -- A judge has ruled Republican Dana Seum Stephenson cannot serve in the Kentucky Senate, but he can't force the Senate to seat Democrat Virginia Woodward.
Franklin (Ky.) Circuit Court Judge William Graham's ruling might lead to a special election to fill Jefferson County's 37th District Senate seat unless the GOP-controlled Kentucky Senate reverses course and seats Woodward, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
Stephenson, who says she'll appeal the ruling, won the election last November by 1,022 votes, but a judge later ruled later she was ineligible to serve because she hadn't lived in the state for the previous six years, as the Kentucky Constitution requires. The Republican-controlled Senate ignored the court ruling and seated her, the Courier-Journal said.
Senate President David Williams says he has no plans to seat Woodward, viewing the ruling as setting a "dangerous precedent" that could erode the separation of powers that make the legislature, the executive and judicial branches of government co-equal.
Williams said he will ask his lawyer to appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals and ask it pass the case directly to the state Supreme Court.
