This week, the Post Register’s Editorial Board wrote an article calling me out by name saying, “Who do they think they are?” I have a question for the Board, “Just who do you think you are?” Your editorial shows you have contempt for our Constitution, disdain for those who assert their constitutional rights, and a lack of understanding about the basic functions of the three branches of government.
The Board claims the lawsuit I filed challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 2 “attempts to reverse the will of the people.” Is the Board suggesting that we want to pass an unconstitutional law so long as the law gives the majority their heart’s desire? If so, then we really have entered the domain of “mob rule” because the Constitution is the only bulwark between freedom and anarchy in our great Republic. What makes our Republic also special and lasting is that the will of the people cannot outweigh rights protected in the Constitution. The Board should know, promote, and teach this truth.
Instead, the Board thinks I should be held in “contempt” and “punished” just because I have filed a petition asserting a constitutional challenge to Proposition 2. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution expressly protects the right to “petition the government.” Ironically, the First Amendment also protects “freedom of the press.” Why does the Board not defend my First Amendment constitutional right just as vigorously as the Board would defend its First Amendment constitutional right? Obviously, the Board is more concerned about constitutional rights only when they conveniently align with the Board’s political views.
The fact that the Board opposes and mocks the court effort to review Proposition 2 for its constitutionality shows that the Board is more concerned about getting what it wants rather than upholding the rule of law, and by so doing, the Board promotes “mob rule.” More disturbing, the Board’s attack on me for exercising my First Amendment right to petition the government lays bare the Board’s secret disdain for our Constitution, and consequently, our Founding Fathers, and the fighting men and women who have sacrificed so much for these rights.
If the Board had any credibility, its attacks might matter. But the Board once again shows it fails to grasp basic principles of our Republic. Specifically, the Board holds me in “contempt” and seeks to “punish” me because I have not asked the court to make minor fixes to the language of Proposition 2 as the remedy if the court finds it to be unconstitutional. A basic principle of separation of powers is that only the “lawmaking body” can make law, not the courts. A court cannot “fix” unconstitutional law simply by rewriting it; otherwise, the court would be making law rather than interpreting it. Either the Board knows the court cannot rewrite an unconstitutional law as a “fix” and intentionally misleads its readers, or the Board ignorantly misleads its readers. Either way, the Board owes its readers an apology.
