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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's Republican governor says the judge who struck down a pension law he signed is "terrible" at his job and makes decisions based on politics.
Gov. Matt Bevin called Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd a "liberal Democrat" during a CNBC interview on Thursday. Shepherd ruled on Wednesday that a recently enacted pension law was unconstitutional because of how lawmakers passed it. Republican leaders replaced a bill that had been about sewer systems with the pension bill on one of the final days of the legislative session.
Bevin has criticized Shepherd in the past, calling him an "incompetent hack." Shepherd has not responded to Bevin's comments.
Bevin said the law was needed to "stop the bleeding" in Kentucky's pension system, which is one of the worst-funded systems in the country.
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