BOSTON — The lawyer for former Maine House Speaker Mark Eves told a panel of federal judges Tuesday that his lawsuit alleging that Gov. Paul LePage violated his constitutional rights should go forward because of the governor’s threats to Eves’ employer.

Eves was fired in 2016 as president of the Goodwill-Hinckley School after LePage threatened to withhold funding for the Maine Academy of Natural Science, a public charter school for at-risk students run by GWH. LePage said the board should not have hired Eves because of the lawmaker’s previous opposition to charter schools.

Eves’ lawyer, David Webber, asked the full 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to override a lower court finding that LePage had immunity to lawsuits based on his authority as governor over state funding.

A panel of three federal appeals judges agreed with the lower court, but the full 1st Circuit then voted to hear the case again before the full court. Such steps are rare and only happen, on average, less than once a year in the 1st Circuit.

Webber said the unusual arrangement between Goodwill-Hinkley and the academy — a private school operating a public charter school — meant LePage was threatening a private institution when he demanded that Eves be fired.

But LePage’s lawyer, Patrick Strawbridge, argued that LePage was within his power to say he wanted to restrict discretionary funds.

There’s no timetable for the court to issue a decision.

This story will be updated.

Copy the Story Link