(Credit: California High Speed Rail Authority)
Yesterday Sacramento Superior Court Judge Raymond M. Cadei tentatively threw out a request to stop the California rail agency from spending voter approved bond money on the Browndoggle.
Opponents of the project sought an injunction to keep the agency from using the money to build a 119-mile segment of track up in the Central Valley.
They argued that legislators changed the language in the bond act, making the use of the money illegal.
Judge Cadei's ruling did not decide on the constitutionality of the legislation passed last year. He said that the people who brought the suit forward did it at the wrong time, and that blocking the money would hurt the state:
“An injunction could significantly harm the state and the public interest."
He added that if California can't access the bond money, it might have to give up and return billions of dollars in federal grants that require matching funds.