�The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Gov. Ed Rendell (D) misused his line-item veto authority in 2005 to remove abortion counseling linguistic communication from a budget bill, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The whole decision, which overturned a lower court of justice ruling, aforementioned that "language-only" vetoes are not permitted, meaning Rendell is not allowed to strike language in a budget bank bill without canceling the associated funding in the measure (Scolforo, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/20).
The language, which was sanctioned in 2005 by the state Legislature, would receive subjected whatever federal fellowship planning funding to the same restrictions as state family planning funds -- a requirement under a 1996 state law that says such money "shall not be used to promote, perform or concern for abortions, or engage in abortion counseling." Rendell at the time aforementioned restricting the use of federal Medicaid funds likely violates the state constitution of the United States and federal law (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/14/06).
Former state House Speaker John Perzel (R) and Robert Jubelirer, the state Senate's ranking Republican at the time, filed the separation-of-powers lawsuit. Senate Republican attorney Steve MacNett said that the fiscal year 2005-2006 money is presumably all spent just that the ruling will influence future budget negotiations. Rendell interpreter Chuck Ardo said that the case is "building complex," adding that the administration wanted to review the ruling before making extra comments. According to the opinion by Chief Justice Ronald Castille, the Rendell administration told the court that preventing line-item vetoes of nomenclature will cause the General Assembly to "once once more 'load up' large appropriations with objectionable conditions and put the governor (to) a Hobbesian choice" (AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/20).
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