FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Supreme Court won’t say if Republican Gov. Matt Bevin broke the law when he ousted the University of Louisville’s governing board last year, prompting the governor and his chief political rival to both claim victory.
Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear said Bevin’s order broke the law and sued him in June 2016. The Republican-controlled Legislature responded by changing the law. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday the new law made the issue moot and dismissed the case.
“We do not decide moot cases because the role of our court is not to give advisory opinions,” Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. wrote for the court.
The Supreme Court did what Bevin wanted by dismissing the case. But they also did something Beshear wanted by clarifying that the law Bevin originally relied upon to abolish the board of trustees no longer applies to public universities. Instead, the new law the Legislature passed earlier this year takes precedence.
That’s important, Beshear said, because the law that Bevin initially used let him dissolve university boards with no oversight. That’s one of the reasons why the university’s accrediting board put the school on probation, threatening its status as an accredited university and millions of dollars of student financial aid. Beshear said the ruling clarifies that no governor can use that law again to disband a public university’s board.
“I view today’s decision as a total win that protects Kentucky’s public universities, our students’ financial aid and the thousands of research jobs our public institutions support,” Beshear said. “The Supreme Court did not refute the circuit court’s ruling that the governor violated the law. Instead, they found that the General Assembly bailed him out.”
Bevin has argued the university was never in danger of losing its accreditation. Plus, the university faced additional accreditation issues following a scathing state audit released earlier this year that had nothing to do with Bevin’s order. Interim University of Louisville President Greg Postel told lawmakers on Thursday that the school has resolved most of those issues and hopes to have the probation lifted in December.
