Update: I knew I should have gone here first: from the Oklahoma State Constitution–
Section II-3: Right of assembly and petition.
The people have the right peaceably to assemble for their own
good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of
government for redress of grievances by petition, address, or
remonstrance.
The subject line for this post is a question for Drew Edmondson, Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma and for the Oklahoma “supreme kangaroo court”.
The First Amendment to the Constitution singled out four specific areas that the “feddle gummint” could NOT infringe: political speech, the exercise of religion, peaceable assembly and… the right of citizens to petition their government for “redress of grievances.”
As it stands now, Paul Jacob is under a felony indictment for… organizing and aiding a petition in the State of Oklahoma that was politically unpopular… with the State powers that be. Read Jacob’s take. Yes, it is an advocacy statement, but having spent many years as a resident of Oklahoma, having gone to school there, worked, lived and voted there, I can credit his statement with hewing very closely to the reality of politics and bureaucracy (and jurisprudence) in that state.
He, and his “cohorts in crime,” are, in the asessment of this one time (long-time) resident, being put to the screws for bucking the political establishment, plain and simple.
Now, while I am not normally a fan of expanding the Fourteenth Amendment all out of shape to fit whatever fancy politicians *spit* or various splinter groups may desire, a clear application of the First Amendment at the State level seems appropriate here, even if arrived at through pressure from the Fourteenth.
Drew Edmondson has in the past lost more than a few “feddle” appeals based on First and Fourteenth Amendment claims and should now better than to seek to quash a petition drive on the flimsy grounds he claims. Heck, if Jacob’s report is anywhere near true (and I have, as I said, every reason to believe it is), a less-rigorously vetted petition that was popular with the Oklahoma political establishment (read, “did not threaten their stranglehold on Oklahoma politics and power”) went unchallenged.
Easy read: petitions that do not seriously threaten the power establishment are OK; those that do are not.
In recent memory, the First Amendment has been applied to the silly and the perverse whenever it suited the whims of the day, from hair length on a school child to publishing pedophilic obscenities, and State and local laws challenged–often successfully–uhnder the claim that the Fourteenth Amendment makes ALL the providions of the Federal Constitution apply to the States as well. Why then should the First Amendment not be applied to things it was clearly meant to address?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Just because Snake McCain and his partners in crime, the congresscritters who aided him directly and Fifi “I hate free speech” Bush and the Supreme Communists who upheld McCain-Feingold, have shown no respect for the First Amendment’s clear purposes, that’s no excuse for Ayatollah Edmondson to do the same, is it?
Or is it.
Well, now that I think on it, it’s the perfect excuse. Political speech? Petition their government for redress of grievances? What’s next, free exercise of religion? Oops. That’s already dead, now isn’t it? (Just try opening a school board meeting with prayer or bowing your head while a sports team prays_*_ and see where that gets you nowadays.)
Bottom line: we’ve let Leftards, Mass Media Podpeople and others who genuinely hate it hijack the Constitution and make its provisions nearly meaningless. And this is (only a part of) what we get: a State Attorney General using the power of his office to quench the First Amendment right to petition.
If the Fourteenth Amendment truly does apply the Constitution to the States, as politicians say whenever it suits their purposes, then the First Amendment’s clearly-stated aims apply, and Ayatollah Edmondson needs to be sent for a remedial consultation with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether. He and his black-robed buddies on the Oklahoma Supreme Kangaroo Court.
*The thing that gets me about this one is the judge who implied that if the coach wasn’t praying, it was ok for him to bow his head. What? Restraint of religious exercise under the cover of supposedly enforcing the First Amendment? Yep. Exactly. Welcome to 1984.
Addendum: Also from the OKlahoma State Constitution (also liberally adapted from the U.S. Constitution):
SECTION II‑15
Bills of attainder – Ex post facto laws – Obligation of contracts – Forfeitures.
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall ever be passed.
Niote that since this article applies to the legislative branch, what Drew Edmondson did in order to have a de facto creation of an ex post facto law was to simply have the Supreme Kangaroo Rubber Stamp Court of Oklahoma tweak a former “interpretation” of “redident status” and then apply that, ex post facto, to the petitioners recruited by Paul Jacob and the people he was working with. When you can get the courts to do your dirty work after the fact, you’ve no need for a compliant legislature (and legislators can smirk and be able to claim disingenuously that they aren’t responsible for the mess).
Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, , A Blog For All, 123beta, Right Truth, Adam’s Blog, Inside the Northwest Territory, The Populist, , The Bullwinkle Blog, Leaning Straight Up, , Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
