Tag: Attorney General

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Accountability election law Tenth Amendment federalism

States Still Have a Role

Nancy Pelosi, Federalism, Nationalism

When asked what kind of government had been proposed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin famously responded: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

But Old Ben did not clarify the nature of the republic. 

It was to be a federal republic. 

In the new Constitution — which was adopted by the states over the next few years — the States were sovereign, the general government given a concise and limited list of tasks to perform.

Since then, nationalism has won most of the big battles, but federalism remains vital as a principle, re-​asserting itself in interesting ways.

Most recent? “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton receives huge win with court ruling delivered on Tuesday deeming the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package passed in 2022 unconstitutional,” as Leading Report explained on Tuesday. “This victory marks a pivotal moment in Paxton’s challenge against the legislation, highlighting concerns over the bill’s approval process.”

At issue is Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which President Biden signed in December 2022, with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division, concluding that “by including members [of U.S. Congress] who were indisputably absent in the quorum count, the Act at issue passed in violation of the Constitution’s Quorum Clause.”

As Paxton gleefully summarized, “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-​19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution.”

The story, as Leading Report argues, “showcases the role of state attorneys general in upholding constitutional principles and ensuring adherence to legal frameworks within the realm of federal governance.”

The States have some say. Still.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Fourth Amendment rights national politics & policies

The J. Edgars’ Threat Tags

Attorney General, Merrick Garland

Last year, Attorney General Merrick Garland found himself under fire for putting parents under fire. That is, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was shown to be targeting for investigation parents upset at school boards for promoting Critical Race Theory.

Garland tried to weasel out of the situation, but since then a lot of details accumulated, like the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center special “snitch line” allowing Democrats to report on parents who buck school board opinions on race.

And now it’s been shown to be worse: it is not just about CRT. Parents who complained about mask mandates also got flagged for being “threats.”

From its inception, the FBI has engaged in shady political activities. The Hoover years — in which J. Edgar erected quite a fiefdom for himself, giving rise to the moniker “J. Edgars” for FBI agents — has served as a casebook on how a government operation is not supposed to work.

During the Trump years, agents were caught lying on FISA surveillance warrant applications to engage in a long-​running coup attempt. More recently, it was shown in court that the FBI had encouraged the Governor Whitmer kidnapping plot.

On May 11, Representatives Jim Jordan and Mike Johnson co-​signed a letter to Merrick Garland on the matter. Whistleblowers, they informed him, had confirmed the FBI was actually investigating concerned parents as “domestic terrorists” using the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division’s “threat tag” system.

Most investigations fizzled, since there was no real threat to be found on most tips, but the partisan slant of the tagging/​targeting procedures suggests that the FBI has become, again, a deviously rogue agency pursuing partisan political goals.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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crime and punishment general freedom insider corruption

The Ayatollah for Governor?

Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is running for governor.

Again.

You may recall, as I certainly do, that Mr. Edmondson prosecuted — more like persecuted — me and two others involved in a 2005 petition drive. He charged us with “conspiracy to defraud the state,” a felony carrying a 10-​year prison term.

At our arraignment and processing, the three of us were shackled together with handcuffs and leg-​irons and paraded before TV cameras.

“Has North Korea Annexed Oklahoma?” was how a Forbes magazine editorial greeted the spectacle. The conservative Wall Street Journal connected the Sooner State to the kind of repression practiced in Pakistan, while liberal consumer advocate Ralph Nader also condemned the prosecution. New Jersey Star Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine noted that Russia’s Vladimir Putin “could learn a thing or two from the Oklahoma boys.”

We became the Oklahoma 3. The AG earned the label “Ayatollah Edmondson.”

Loudly expressing our innocence, we waited for our day in court.

It was a long wait.

Edmondson held the indictment over our heads for a year and a half, publicly attacking us and calling us criminals. But he never permitted us our day in court. He went to great lengths to avoid completing a preliminary hearing, which would have allowed a judge to determine if enough evidence existed to hold a trial.

Finally, in 2009, as he prepared to launch his previous unsuccessful run for governor, he dropped all the charges.

When someone abuses power so recklessly, that someone shouldn’t be given more power.

Today, career politician Drew Edmondson tells voters he will “Put Oklahomans First.” He can’t even come up with his own slogan.

Ayatollah Edmondson: Dangerous. And unoriginal.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

 

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Additional Information

Capitol Beat: In critical analysis, Edmondson ranked among worst attorneys general
CEI: Drew Edmondson’s Prosecution of Paul Jacob Is Unconstitutional
Wall Street Journal: Still Oklahoma’s Most Wanted – Attorney General leads posse chasing critics of government
NewsOK: State’s Unjust Prosecution 
Capitol Beat: Edmondson should free “The Oklahoma Three”

My Writing on Edmondson’s Attack on Petition Rights

We, the Oklahoma 3 — Oct. 7, 2007
Guilt & Innocence in Oklahoma — Jan. 21, 2008
Constitutionally Unsuited for the Job — Feb. 13, 2008
Above the Law — March 14, 2008
Opposed to Answers — April 28, 2008
Edmondson vs. Term Limits — May 20, 2008
Another OK Court Decision — June 4, 2008
Petitioners May Petition — July 8, 2008
Scare Tactic in Oklahoma — July 23, 2008
Feeling Sorry for Oklahoma — Nov. 17, 2008
The Wheels of Injustice — Dec. 4, 2008
The Oklahoma Three, Free at Last — Jan. 26, 2009
The Year of Reform? — Feb. 18, 2009
The Untold Story of the Oklahoma 3 — May 1, 2009
Change Sweeping Down the Plains — May 19, 2009

Categories
Accountability crime and punishment government transparency moral hazard national politics & policies property rights responsibility too much government U.S. Constitution

The Police State Is in Sessions

Jeff Sessions, AG, Attorney General, asset forfeiture, civil, Trump

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatens to make himself one of the biggest threats to your liberty.*

President Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General just promised to encourage police departments to seize the personal property (cars, houses, cash) of criminal suspects.

The practice is called asset forfeiture. It comes in two forms, criminal and civil. Compelling objections have been raised against civil forfeiture, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of all forfeitures. Abuse is rampant in cities, counties and states around the country, routinely used against people who have not even been charged, much less prosecuted and convicted. (Often not really even suspected of criminality.)

“No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime,” he told conference attendees in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday.** But how can our top federal law enforcement officer ignore the profound difference between a suspect and a criminal?

No one is a criminal, before the law, until proved in court. Taking away property to make it harder for suspects to defend themselves — which is what RICO laws and other Drug War reforms intended to do — is obviously contrary to the letter of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments as well as the spirit of the U.S. Constitution.

Sessions announced he’ll soon offer a “new directive on asset forfeiture — especially for drug traffickers.” Unless he clearly indicates that it will only be used against the property of persons legally convicted of crimes, Sessions will be merely making charges of an “American Police State” stick. 

America’s top lawman argues completely contrary to American principles of justice.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

* Bigger than Eric Holder was. Bigger than Loretta Lynch.

** Sessions also went on to say that “sharing with our partners” — local police departments around the nation — is a good thing. This is, systemically, the most dangerous aspect of it all, for it encourages police departments to take things for their own benefit.

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Categories
ideological culture insider corruption political challengers

The Wicked Witch Is Dead

Many is the time I’ve compared various politicians to The Wizard of Oz’s man behind the curtain. They’re not bad men; they’re just not very good wizards.

But today brings a different connection to Oz: I can’t get the song, “Ding-​dong, the Witch Is Dead!” out of my head.

Tuesday, Oklahoma’s Democratic Party primary voters ended Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s gubernatorial bid.

Regular readers of Common Sense know I’m no fan of Mr. Edmondson, who attempted to bully and threaten two others and me, the Oklahoma Three, for daring to push a petition to put a state spending cap on the ballot. Edmondson indicted us, in 2007, on a phony felony charge that carried a ten-​year prison term. After a year and a half of Edmondson delaying to deny us our day in court, the trumped-​up charge was dismissed.

We certainly weren’t the only victims of Edmondson’s put-​politics-​before-​justice philosophy. A Competitive Enterprise Institute report judged Edmondson to be the third worst AG in the nation for, among other things, abusing “the power of [his] office for political ends.”

At CapitolBeatOK​.com, Patrick McGuigan detailed much of Edmondson’s bad behavior, helping hasten the day that Oklahomans would be free of him. In January 2011 that day will come for the man once described as “Barney Fife with bullets — and no Andy.” 

Justice is finally sweeping down the plains. 

Oh, wrong movie. Here: You-​know-​who has just met his opportune bucket of water.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.