As we told you at the top of the newscast, new Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin - in his first major hearing - today refused to grant an injunction to Vaughan Gill and Ricardo Castillo - who had asked him to restrain the Attorney General and The Governor General from passing the ninth into law.
It's a major case for the Ashcroft Alliance, and no less than the eminent QC Lord Peter Goldsmith was brought to argue the case. The decision was handed down this morning at 9:00 - and Chief Justice Benjamin denied the injunction. The Prime Minister announced the decision in the house to the wild applause of his supporters - and we spoke to Alliance Attorney Godfrey Smith at the courthouse - who was still keeping alive the hope for a post-passage referendum:..
PM Dean Barrow
"That the Supreme Court this morning dismissed the application. The Supreme Court dismissed the application for the injunction for try and restrain parliament from implementing the will of the people and passing the 9th Constitution Amendment Bill. Injunction refused, thank you Mr. Speaker."
Godfrey Smith, Lawyer
"Obviously we are disappointed by the judgment but we respect it. I think the judge took his time and made a careful judgment. He did not provide a printed copy, we were supposed to get that at midday, and after that then we will consider our further options but, yes it's disappointing but these things happen, that's the risk of litigation, so we will consider next steps after this. So that's the position of the case. If I interpret what this Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin was also saying that there is an obligation to hold it. We accept that it is not binding, the referendum can...let's assume that it is held and the requisite number of people or
percentages of people who participate in the referendum say no, we accept that as a matter of law that is not binding."
But there's a significant late evening wrinkle - that could change everything, again. In what has to be a judicial event without precedent, Smith told us just minutes before news time that he has gotten the Court of Appeal to have an emergency hearing tomorrow morning, Saturday, at 10:00 am, to hear an urgent appeal of the Benjamin decision. Urgent because he's trying to block the Senate's passing the bill - which will then only leave it to be signed into law.
As we said, completely without precedent, and we'll be sure to follow tomorrow's hearing keenly.
