PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
by Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITER
Freshly appointed chief of an office wracked by tumult at the top, Attorney General Bruce Beemer is rejecting a key position taken by his predecessor, saying he believes a child sex-abuse bill in Harrisburg that would have allowed lawsuits for decades-old would not have violated the constitution.
In an interview with The Inquirer, Beemer contradicted the legal view offered by then-Solicitor General Bruce L. Castor Jr., who told a Senate panel in June that he believed the measure, opposed by the Catholic Church, would be rejected by the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee then gutted the provision, citing Castor’s testimony and that of several others. The bill had been overwhelmingly approved by the House in April.
“I do not agree with it,” Beemer said of Castor’s interpretation of the law, adding that “reasonable legal minds can differ” on the matter.
“Ultimately, you would think it would be up to the highest court on Pennsylvania to determine if it’s unconstitutional,” Beemer said in the interview Tuesday night.
Beemer’s public declaration comes as advocates are considering whether to push to rewrite the amended bill in the days ahead or reintroduce the bill anew in the next legislative session that begins in January. It would potentially make it harder for Senate opponents to rely on a legal view that the top law enforcement officer has said publicly he believes is wrong.
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