A lawsuit that two Vermont senators filed seeking to block Gov. Phil Scott’s appointment of interim Education Secretary Zoie Saunders has been dismissed. Sens. Tanya Vyhovsky (P/D-Chittenden Central) and Dick McCormack (D-Windsor) sued in June after the Republican governor and the Democratic-led legislature sparred over Saunders’ appointment. When the Vermont Senate voted against confirming her, Scott named Saunders as interim secretary. Saunders formerly was a charter school administrator who worked in Florida. She was among three finalists for the job selected by the State Board of Education. [content-4] Vyhovsky and McCormack charged that the governor “purposefully circumvented the constitutional and statutory requirement to obtain the advice and consent of the Vermont Senate" in appointing Saunders. The lawsuit asked the court to declare that Saunders had not "validly functioned" in her role since April 30, the day Scott named her as the interim leader. [content-1] In July, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the case. During a hearing on that motion on Thursday, assistant attorney general David Golubock argued that the governor acted within his authority. As a point of contrast, he noted that the statute that governs the appointment of members of the Green Mountain Care Board explicitly states that the governor cannot reappoint a nominee who has been denied confirmation by the Senate within the past six years. In his ruling, Superior Court Judge Robert Mello agreed with the Attorney General's Office. "There is no constitutional provision subjecting the Governor's appointment of agency secretaries to the advice and consent of the Senate (or anyone else)," Mello wrote. Instead, the Vermont Constitution says the governor "shall apply every vacancy in any office, occasioned by death or otherwise, until the office can be filled in a manner directed by law or this Constitution." Mello rejected the argument made by John Franco, a lawyer representing Vyhovsky and McCormack, that statutory language effectively barred a rejected appointee from serving in the role they were rejected from, even on an interim basis. Mello interpreted the statute Franco cited as referring "exclusively to regularly appointed permanent secretaries, not interim appointments." Mello didn't agree with the attorney general's office on all points. On Thursday, Golubock characterized the debate about Saunders’ appointment as a “political dispute," best left to the executive and legislative branches to work out, not an issue that should be resolved in court. But in his decision, Mello wrote…