by Christian Wade, The Center Square | February 23, 2021 01:00 PM Print this article
A federal court judge has rejected a lawsuit calling on the Republican-led House of Representatives to provide remote access for lawmakers with health issues.
House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, and several other lawmakers filed a lawsuit last week alleging House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to provide accommodations for 28 lawmakers with health concerns when the 400-member House begins indoor meetings this week.
But U.S. District Court Chief Justice Landya McCafferty ruled Monday that Packard has broad immunity from any litigation challenging the House s rules and operations.
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POLITICAL COMMENTARY
For those of you old enough to remember Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel Catch-22, it is a reminder that most things really are not new.
The ground-breaking dark comedy, although stylistically it was similar to two earlier Samuel Beckett novels, followed anti-hero Capt. John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier, as he tried to process in different times and places the horrific death of a fellow officer.
The title of the book has taken on a meaning of its own, a paradoxical situation with no escape because of rules or limitations.
The situation is like the character Klinger in MASH who tries to feign mental illness to escape his military service only to be told he is not insane because he wants to get out of the Army.
New Hampshire House Democrats are asking a federal judge to require that Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard allow legislators who are especially vulnerable to serious illness or death from COVID-19 to attend next week’s two-day House session remotely.
Credit Todd Bookman / NHPR
The 400-member New Hampshire House has found a new place to meet indoors later this month, but the Legislature s top Democrat is threatening legal action to allow lawmakers who don t want to meet in person due to COVID-19 the right to participate remotely.
In a notice to colleagues Friday, House Speaker Sherman Packard said he continues to research ways for the House to meet remotely but has yet to find a solution that meets what he called the body s unique needs.
Packard has, however, found a place where he says the House can safely meet in person: the New Hampshire Sportsplex in Bedford. Packard said lawmakers there will have 50,000 square feet in which to maintain social distance - about twice what they had the last time the house met indoors, at UNH s Whittemore Center.
Lawmaker s vulgar insult highlights tensions of remote N.H. State House
Technical changes brought on by the pandemic have added new tensions to the business of the N.H. Legislature. Courtesy
Published: 2/11/2021 4:56:12 PM
There was full remote attendance during the most recent meeting of the New Hampshire House Ways and Means Committee. But one lawmaker, Committee Chairman Norm Major explained, would not be allowed to vote during the hearing.
“Mary, you are as important to us as anyone else,” Major said. “But that’s what the rule is now.”
“Mary” is 94-year old Republican Rep. Mary Griffin. Under rules set by House Speaker Sherman Packard, to vote remotely – the norm now, with the Legislature’s virtual meeting schedule amid the pandemic lawmakers must be visible on screen. Because Griffin lacks a computer with a camera, she can’t vote on bills in committee unless she travels to the State House. The policy was roundly criticized by her committee-mates on bo