Quite the saga. Emphases mine.
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
A federal judge is telling New Hampshire that the state needs to get its vehicle inspection program back up and running.
The ruling on Wednesday does not immediately change anything for New Hampshire drivers, who currently do not need to get their vehicles inspected.
The judge denied a request to pause her original injunction, which ordered the state not to suspend the program.
Despite the initial ruling, inspections have not resumed, and the state has not approved a new contract to continue the program.
Gordon-Darby, the company that had been contracted to run New Hampshire's vehicle inspection program, sued the commissioners for the departments of Safety and Environmental Services after New Hampshire suspended the program to comply with a new state law to end it.
The judge agreed with Gordon-Darby that the state was violating the Clean Air Act by ending the program without a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency. The state applied for that waiver in December, but the EPA said it could take up to 18 months to review it.
The Executive Council has since ended the contract with Gordon-Darby.
In her ruling, Judge Landya McCafferty noted that the commissioners said they don't have the legal authority to find a new vendor, but she said the commissioners have the authority to comply with her first ruling.
The Executive Council is responsible for finding a new vendor. State officials said the program will remain suspended while they figure out what their next steps will be.
As New Hampshire continues to resist the orders issued by the judge, a constitutional crisis is brewing, according to University of New Hampshire law professor Daniel Pi.
"Where the state is openly defying the orders of a federal court, and this implicates Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and all sorts of things that just don't get litigated very often," Pi said. "Usually, states kind of understand what the federal structure is and agree with it."
For New Hampshire drivers, nothing changes. The state is sticking to its earlier guidance that the program is suspended.
That means inspection stations are no longer authorized to issue state inspection stickers, and vehicles are not required to get an annual state inspection at this time.