Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 31, DeMotte, Jasper County, 1 July 1949 — "Clown Ads” By Legislature Are Scored [ARTICLE]

"Clown Ads” By Legislature Are Scored

"Hill-Billy" Program During Overtime Session Draws Fire In High Court “Hill-billy band” programs during the 63-day “overtime” General Assembly session drew the fire of Huntington Attorney Claude Cline before- the Indiana Supreme Court yesterday. Cline appealing to the state’s highest tribunal to declare unconstitutional all laws enacted during the 41-hour “overtime” period delivered a ringing attack against what he termed “the legislature’s vaudeville.” “At this very session Governor Schricker and his party sat in the halls while some sort of hill-billy band program was presented before the Legislature during the timb it pretended to be in session” Cline declared. “It is common knowledge that from time to time the Legislature put on its own vaudeville when it should have been busy attending to the business which it claimed necessitated the overtime session.” Cline tangled in a two-hour verbal battle with two deputy attorney generals Earl R. Cox and Thomas J. Webber, over the legality of “overtime” legislative sessions. The Huntington attorney appealed to the Supreme Court from a recent ruling of Marion County Superior Court Judge John L. Niblack that “overtime” sessions are legal. Webber contended Cline’s attempt to have the laws declared invalid is illegal because this constitutes a suit against the state. Cox declared the judicial branch of government has no control over ad-min-4 rat ive policies of the Genera) Assembly and hence the case is outside the court’s jurisdiction. The court probably will not rule on the case for several days. Three state legislators attended the Supreme Court hearing. They were Representative Phillip Willke, Rushville Republican, and Leo Meagher, Evansville Democrat, and Republican Senator Edwin W. Beaman Princeton Republican.