Foley, Others To File Suit Against Term-Limits Law

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Tom Foley and the League of Women Voters will file suit in the next week or two challenging Washington state's law imposing term limits.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit will be Foley; the state chapter of the League of Women Voters and its president, Margaret Colony; George Cheek, a voter in Foley's 5th District; and John Clute, dean of Gonzaga University's School of Law.

The case will be filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle by attorneys for the law firm of Preston Thorgrimson Shidler Gates & Ellis. Lead attorney will be Fred Tausend, a partner in the firm and former dean of the University of Puget Sound Law School.

Sources involved in the case say the suit will challenge the state's term-limits initiative and expect their case to be consolidated with another lawsuit now before federal Judge William Dwyer.

Attorneys at Preston Thorgrimson have been researching the constitutionality of state-imposed term limits since Washington voters narrowly defeated a strict, retroactive term-limits initiative in 1991. Last year voters approved a less stringent set of limits, which restrict House members to three two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms.

Foley, D-Spokane, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit because he will be affected by the initiative in 1998. The league has long been on the record opposing term limits, and Clute is considered one of the foremost authorities in the state on the U.S. Constitution. Cheek represents voters who could potentially be deprived of their choice of candidate if Foley were forced out of office by the law.

The suit will claim that states have no authority to restrict access to the ballot for federal offices and that only the House and Senate can determine qualifications for those offices - in essence, that only the House and Senate can limit the terms of their members.