Tag Archives: Lawsuit

ADOT responds to filing of legal action against South Mountain Freeway

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Loop_202_freeway_challenge_2963300000_18473589_ver1.0_640_480PHOENIX — While the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration have not yet had an opportunity to review in detail the legal action filed against the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, the agencies are confident that any legal challenges will find that the law was followed in coming to a decision to construct this long-planned freeway.

Following an extensive environmental review process that encompassed more than a decade of comprehensive analysis, with various formal and informal opportunities for the public to learn about the project and provide comment, ADOT received a Record of Decision from the Federal Highway Administration in March 2015 to proceed with the project. Throughout the process, nearly 8,000 formal comments from community members were documented, responded to and considered by the study team in coming to the decision to construct the freeway.

The South Mountain Freeway has been a critical part of the Maricopa Association of Governments’ Regional Freeway Program since it was first included in funding approved by Maricopa County voters in 1985. It was part of the Regional Transportation Plan funding passed by Maricopa County voters in 2004 through Proposition 400, and this freeway is the last piece to complete the Loop 202 and Loop 101 freeway system necessary for high-quality regional mobility. The South Mountain Freeway will significantly improve travel between the southeast and southwest areas of the Valley and help reduce congestion on Interstate 10. The freeway is also expected to promote economic development in the region.

The freeway will be constructed with four lanes in each direction – three general-use lanes and one HOV lane – and modern features that have made Arizona freeways stand apart from other states for a generation, including rubberized asphalt and aesthetics designed in partnership with the community. Construction of the $1.75 billion project is expected to take about four years under an innovative public-private partnership that will have a private developer design, construct and maintain the freeway for 30 years. This public-private partnership will reduce costs to taxpayers while accelerating construction.

For more information, or to review the extensive environmental documentation, visit www.azdot.gov/SouthMountainFreeway.

White House Senior Adviser Daniel Pfeiffer blasts Republicans over lawsuit

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Daniel_PfeifferWhite House adviser Daniel Pfeiffer sent out an email blasting Republicans for filing a lawsuit over the illegal use of Executive Orders by the current administration.

Executive orders are not a Constitutional power granted to the President. They are not even mentioned in the Constitution. Executive orders were used first by President George Washington to instruct cabinet members on the manner in which they were to enforce laws passed by Congress. Neither he, nor his successors—until Woodrow Wilson—used executive orders to make laws.

The ability of executive order and bureaucracies to create law was ruled unconstitutional in the decision of Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824). In Paragraph 146 of the decision Chief Justice John Marshall wrote:

…for the power which is exclusively delegated to Congress, can only be exercised by Congress itself, and cannot be sub-delegated by it.

Pfeiffer’s email reads:

The House of Representatives just took a vote — and it wasn’t to raise the minimum wage, put in place equal pay, create jobs, or reform our broken immigration system.

Instead, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives just voted to sue the President for using his executive authority. This lawsuit will waste valuable time and potentially millions of
taxpayer dollars.

This is the least productive Congress in decades. And instead of doing their job, they are suing the
President for doing his.

The President is committed to making a difference for the millions of hardworking Americans trying to do right by their families and communities. While Republicans in Congress continue to waste taxpayer money, this President is going to keep doing his job.

If you’re doing your own job — and you support President Obama doing his — add your name.

President Obama remains ready and willing to work with Republicans in Congress if they decide to get serious and do something for the American people. But he is also committed to acting even as Congress won’t. You’ve seen that time and time again this year — from raising the federal minimum wage on new federal government contracts, to expanding apprenticeship opportunities and making student loan payments more affordable.

The President is not going to back away from his efforts to use his authority to solve problems and help American families. In fact, tomorrow, President Obama will announce his next executive action to crack down on federal contractors who put workers’ safety and hard-earned pay at risk. It’s just the next in a series of steps this Administration will be taking this year to make sure that American workers are getting a fair deal, and he has pledged to take executive action to deal with our broken immigration system in the months ahead.

That’s what this President is focused on. If you want to see it continue, and are sick and tired of stunts like the House Republicans’ lawsuit, then say so:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/doing-his-job