Panel Asked to Curb Line-Item Vetoes

SAN FRANCISCO — A coalition of people with disabilities and domestic violence survivors argued in a brief filed Thursday for overturningmany of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line-item vetoes, challenging the governor’s authority in what they said amounts to more than a legal squabble over the courts’ definition of appropriation.

“In asking this Court to accept his strained interpretation of an item of appropriation, the governor seeks the rejection of Supreme Court precedent that the governor’s veto power must be narrowly construed,” concluded the brief , filed with the First District Court of Appeal. “The result would be an unprecedented intrusion of the executive into the province of the Legislature, which the voters of California have twice rejected.” The brief was filed by co-counsel Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Disability Rights Advocates and Kirkland & Ellis in St. John’s Well Child and Family Center v. Schwarzenegger , A125750.