Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuit Claiming Steven Payne Was Unlawfully Expelled From Legislature

The V.I. Supreme Court on Friday tossed out the lawsuit filed by Steven Payne and Noellise Powell which alleged that the former senator’s expulsion from the 34th Legislature in July of 2022 was unlawful.

Having wrested the case from the Superior Court after months of dormancy, and what was deemed to be an “inadequate” judicial process “due to failure of the Superior Court to rule on the immunity claims while nevertheless issuing rulings on non-immunity claims and setting the matter for an imminent trial,” the Supreme Court began by considering a motion filed by the Legislature to dismiss the matter entirely.

That motion asserted three constitutional defenses against Mr. Payne and Ms. Powell’s lawsuit. The first, of immunity under the “speech or debate clause” of the Revised Organic Act, was accepted by the Court as applicable to the president of the Senate or individual legislators, but not to the legislature as a whole. The plaintiff’s claims for monetary damages were dismissed due to a finding of sovereign immunity for legislative action – the expulsion of a sitting senator – that constitutes a “uniquely governmental function that can never be performed by a private person.”

Third, the Court maintained that while it certainly does have the right to adjudicate certain disputes over whether individuals are eligible or qualified to hold legislative office, “it does not necessarily follow that all such cases are justiciable.”