Legal News

The Curious Case of Bysiewicz v. Bysiewicz

By Ashby Jones

When we last checked in on the situation concerning Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut’s secretary of the state, things were weird.

Suffice it to say that since then, things have gotten a whole lot weirder.

Let’s recap. Bysiewicz wants to become Connecticut’s next attorney general. Thing is — and this is what we wrote about back in January — she might not qualify.

Connecticut law requires that “the Attorney General shall be an elector of this state and an attorney at law of at least ten years' active practice at the bar of this state.” Whether Bysiewicz has “ten years’ active practice” under her belt depends on whether her service as Secretary of State qualifies. If it does, she’s got well over 10 years; if it doesn’t she’s only got six years’ experience.

To find out, Bysiewicz filed suit — against herself in her capacity of Secretary of State. Herself? That’s right. After all, part of her job as Secretary of State is to explain and defend the state’s election laws to a variety of candidates. If she doesn’t like the law, the office to sue is the one that enforces them — her own. Click here for the AP story.

According to the AP, a lawyer for Bysiewicz will argue soon that it’s unconstitutional to require attorney general candidates to have at least 10 years in active legal practice. Bysiewicz’s attorney, Wesley Horton, recently told the AP he would not comment publicly on the case before presenting it in court.

If the requirement is upheld as constitutional, Bysiewicz’s attorney will argue that her 11 years as secretary of the state and six years as a corporate lawyer more than meet the requirement.

“This is really, I think, uncharted territory for us here in Connecticut,” said Gary Rose, a political science professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. to the AP. “Having to go into court to sue and into a deposition to pursue the (attorney general) position, I can’t think of another time in my lifetime, certainly, where I’ve seen anything remotely similar to what’s going on here,” Rose said.

Another odd little twist: The state GOP was allowed to join Bysiewicz’s lawsuit as a defendant. In a deposition taken by the State GOP, Bysiewicz acknowledged that she has never used the manual of Connecticut court procedures and rules governing attorneys, had never sat at a counsel table and had never been to a deposition or been a witness in a case.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 14, 2010 (boomark / email).