By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – The legislator who threw a punch in the state Senate said he won't quit over disciplinary action taken against him, but he will sue. State Senator Charles Bishop of Jasper announced his plans Wednesday.
Tuesday, during the opening of the new legislative session, the Democrat-controlled Senate split along party lines in approving a resolution that set out sanctions for future violence. Also, the panel that controls Senate committee assignments took Bishop off nearly all Senate committees.
Bishop says his suit will argue that his due process rights were violated and that the Senate's resolution was an unconstitutional change of the Senate's operating rules.
The Senate's deputy majority leader, Democrat Quinton Ross, says he regrets Bishop's decision because the Senate tried to handle the matter in a dignified manner and move on to other issues.
Bishop hit state Senator Lowell Barron on June 7, which was the final day of the 2007 legislative session.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)