SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT JUSTICE Serge Georges Jr. on Wednesday kicked the tires on Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s bid to, as he put it, send a shot across the bow of more than 100 other municipalities by taking her MBTA Communities case against Milton straight to the state’s highest court.

Campbell wants to skip a trial in Superior Court and go straight to the SJC in May in an effort to establish clearly that Milton and other communities in the state are subject to the law and her office has the authority to enforce compliance.

“This law and the policy it embodies is very important to the attorney general,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Haskell at a court hearing before Georges. “This case presents issues, and moreover presents legal issues, not factual issues, that are of exceeding importance not just to the parties sitting here in the courtroom today but also the other 129 cities and towns that are also facing a deadline at the end of this calendar to bring their own zoning into compliance.”

Peter Mello, an attorney representing Milton, called the legal timeline outlined by the attorney general’s office “absurd” and said there is no need to rush the case to the SJC. “It’s not a novel, unusual, or extraordinary situation,” he said.

Georges, who mentioned the SJC will be bogged down during May in dealing with the legality of ballot questions, raised the same question. “Why do we have to do this now?” he asked. “If you’re infusing into my calculus the fact that the town of Milton is the bellwether, the canary in the coal mine, and that we ought to take that into consideration, is that proper consideration for this court, that we need the shot across the bow to folks to make sure everybody comes into compliance?”

Haskell insisted the case is “exceptional” and worthy of the SJC’s immediate attention. He said many cities and towns will need to come into compliance with the MBTA Communities Act by the end of this year and the Milton case is casting a cloud over the process. He warned that going to Superior Court to obtain an injunction would lead to delays which could embolden resistance to the law.

“If this case is not resolved promptly, our fear is we’re going to see more of this,” Haskell said of Milton’s non-compliance. “It’s in the public interest for the full court to take this issue by the horns and resolve it once and for all.”

Milton Town Meeting approved a rezoning plan to bring the town into compliance with the MBTA Communities Act ahead of its December 31, 2023, deadline, but voters rejected the plan by a 54-46 margin at a special town election in mid-February. That vote has left the town scrambling to plan its next move.

In its legal brief to the court, Milton argued the attorney general lacks standing to enforce compliance because the law lists the denial of state grants as the means of enforcement. The town also argued there are a series of factual matters that need to be resolved at the lower court level, including whether Milton was properly classified as a “rapid transit” community subject to much higher requirements for multi-family housing zoning.

Haskell said all the factual matters raised by Milton could be addressed in other separate proceedings, but urged Georges to bring the case to the full SJC to determine whether Milton is subject to the MBTA Communities Act and whether Campbell’s office has the authority to enforce compliance.

In questioning Mello, Georges probed many of the issues raised by Haskell. He asked who would enforce the law if not the attorney general. Mello did not respond directly, but said “the Legislature specifically excluded the power of the attorney general to do it.”

Georges also pressed Mello repeatedly on whether it made sense for the SJC to address the foundational legal issue of whether Milton is subject to the law. He said several times that Milton, no matter how it is eventually classified, would be required to do some rezoning because the Mattapan Trolley has three station stops in Milton.

Mello acknowledged that might make sense, but added that there was no need to take the “extraordinary step” of taking the case directly to the SJC to do it.

Georges said he would make his decision by Monday.