Update 18 Referendum Challenge-High Court Judgement
Dear Friends,
Judge Paul McDermott handed down judgement on the Childrens Rights Referendum Challenge, the “Jordan” case, yesterday Oct 18, 2013.
It was great to meet so many of you in Court 6. Mattie McGrath independent TD also attended in support of the challenge. On the other side, there were representatives of the Childrens Rights Alliance, Barnardos, etc and people from government departments. The atmosphere was tense.
In a 101 page judgment which took over 2 hours to read, Justice McDermott reviewed the law, McCrystal judgments and the evidence presented in the case from expert and non expert witnesses on both sides. That done, Judge McDermott,
in his conclusions decided that the situation of government interference was serious enough to grant us “leave to petition” against the children referendum result but then went on to reject the petition itself.
His rejection comes from what he said was our failure to prove that what the state did (run a taxpayer funded Yes campaign under the guise of “information”) materially affected the result of the referendum.
He states in the judgment that ” I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the petitioner has succeeded in establishing those grounds for the reasons which I have set out in the judgment. The petition is dismissed.”
Although we would have liked the High Court to grant the petition this result was not really a surprise. And the legal team of Brophys solicitors, Paul Sreenan SC, Niahm Hyland SC and Catherine Donnelly JC are prepared to take an appeal on the unsuccessful petition to the Supreme Court. At the same time they plan to progress the “plenary” (Constitutional) case against the sections of the Referendum Act that requires that a petitioner has to prove material affects on the result in terms of winning and loosing as it is virtually impossible.
What was a serous shock was that the judge indicated that he was not planning to grant us a “stay” on the referendum certificate. This would mean that as soon as he dismissed the case the certificate could/would be rushed to President Higgins to sign amending the constitution deleting Article 42.5 and adding the new Article 42A rendering an appeal to the Supreme Court moot.
The legal team and Joanna spent the lunch hour dealing with this terrible danger. There was a real question around whether if the Judge refused to extended the stay, our side could get the Supreme Court to sanction a stay before a fast car could take the certificate from the Four Courts to the Phoenix Park to be signed into law by the President.
We texted for prayer support and some of us spent lunchtime in the Church of the Immaculate Conception across the bridge.
When we reassembled in the court, we discovered that the senior counsels on both sides had just agreed to a stay of the referendum certificate. The state’s side offered a short term stay, Paul Sreenan SC asked for a stay that would cover the whole process but this was not agreed by the court or the State. In the end Judge McDermott gave a two week state
So we have two weeks to get the appeal into the Supreme Court and to ask the Supreme Court to grant an extension of the stay. In the meantime on Nov 8th both sides will be back before the High Court on the issue of the plenary case and costs.
If we win the appeal in the Supreme Court then the plenary case is moot and the referendum result declared invalid. If we loose the appeal, Joanna Jordan and the legal team take these losses in the High and Supreme Court as further evidence for the plenary case that the current reading of sections of the Referendum Act is unconstitutional because they make it virtually impossible for a citizen to successfully challenge a referendum result.
Stage one of this challenge is now complete and we are on the next stage. Please keep up the amazing support that you have demonstrated till now. Please have a look at the judgment when it is uploaded on www.courts.ie and send any ideas that occur to you. As always keep Joanna Jordan, the legal team and this challenge in defense of the sovereignty of the people of Ireland and in defense of children, parents and families in your thoughts and especially in your prayers.
Thank you
God bless
Kathy Sinnott
PS. John Waters in yesterdays Irish Times
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‘If we loose the appeal, Joanna Jordan and the legal team take these losses in the High and Supreme Court as further evidence for the plenary case that the current reading of sections of the Referendum Act is unconstitutional because they make it virtually impossible for a citizen to successfully challenge a referendum result.’
That would be unconstitutional, that in itself is something worthy of challenge.