The Washington Supreme Court has scheduled Sept. 10 as the day it will decide Sheriff Adam Fortney’s appeal to stop his recall.

Although the Washington State Legislature set an expedited 30-day deadline for the Washington Supreme Court to decide recall appeals, the court sets its own schedule based on its court rules.

If the Washington Supreme Court upholds Judge Kathryrn Loring’s ruling — that enough evidence was presented to justify a recall election — then the Committee to Recall Sheriff Fortney will have 180 days, from the day after the decision, to collect enough signatures to put the recall to the voters.

Fortney appealed his recall to the Washington Supreme Court on June 22.

“When it comes to the recall of Adam Fortney, time is of the essence, because COVID-19 is peaking again in Snohomish County and throughout the country,” said Colin McMahon, chair of the Committee to Recall Sheriff Fortney. “Fortney’s lack of leadership is part of a trend to ignore the science supporting social distancing and wearing face masks. It is critical that voters be allowed to recall Fortney, so a responsible leader who believes in following the law can take his place.”

Two groups have filed recall petitions asking that voters be allowed to decide whether Fortney should lose his job for violating his oath of office. Separate judges have ruled that both efforts may proceed.

In both recall petitions, the argument is that Fortney, in an April post on his Facebook page, said he was refusing to enforce Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. The petitions charge that his refusal violates his oath of office and that his statements incited the public not to follow the order.

At the time, Fortney said his officers would not enforce the governor’s order because he felt it was unconstitutional, including that it deprived citizens of their rights to gather in church or in other public places.

Additional recall charges accuse Fortney of improperly rehiring deputies who had been fired by previous sheriffs for misconduct. He has called his rehire decisions legal and “a matter of the sheriff’s discretion” to bring those officers back to work.