‘Life support.’ Bill to let Bevin, others avoid Franklin Circuit judge is faltering.

The controversial bill that would let state officials avoid Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd is on “life support,” its sponsor, Senate President Robert Stivers said Tuesday.

With this year’s legislative session winding down, the likelihood of Senate Bill 2 becoming law becomes less each day, said Stivers. Tuesday marked the 27th day of the law-making session.

The bill was scheduled to be heard Tuesday morning in the House Judiciary Committee but it was not. The Senate had approved it Feb. 28 on a 26-9 vote and sent it to the House.

Stivers said after the House committee meeting that House leaders informed him Monday night that they did not know if they had the votes to pass it out of committee or the chamber.

Stivers declined to declare it dead for this session. No bill is really dead as long as lawmakers are in session. They are to officially adjourn March 29

Stivers said some House members were not comfortable with how the bill would work.

The bill, opposed by Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton, would allow the governor, legislature or state agency being sued to demand a special judge to hear the legal case against them.

Stivers, R-Manchester, said he does not know if Minton’s opposition to his bill was a factor in its likely demise.

The senator introduced the bill after criticizing how Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd handled a lawsuit last year challenging a public pension bill the Republican-led legislature adopted and Gov. Matt Bevin signed into law. Shepherd ruled against it and the Kentucky Supreme Court later unanimously upheld his ruling.

Stivers, who also is an attorney, said judges in one county should not hear all lawsuits against state government and challenges to the Kentucky Constitution. He called Franklin Circuit Court, which has two judges, a “super circuit.”

Under SB 2, lawsuits against state officials and agencies that now are filed in Frankklin Circuit Court could be sent to a special judge if a defendant requested it within 20 days. No reason for the transfer would have to be given.

The original bill said the chief justice would be required to select a judge randomly to hear the case. Stivers changed it to require the circuit court clerk in the county in which the action was originally filed to conduct a lottery drawing in the presence of the parties or their counsel within three days after the removal request was filed to select another Kentucky county to hear the case.

The special judge would be encouraged but not required to hold court hearings in the county in which the action was originally filed.

Stivers has said the bill was not introduced at the request of anyone in the executive branch. Bevin has been critical of Shepherd, calling him “an incompetent hack.”

The lawmaker said he still believes Shepherd has a tendency “to practice cases instead of judging” them. “Judges should judge and not practice cases,” he said.

Shepherd had no comment on the status of SB 2.