Tag: Edmondson

Categories
Accountability Common Sense First Amendment rights initiative, referendum, and recall insider corruption

Constitutionally Unsuited for the Job

You can’t answer every random fallacy uttered by fierce foes of facts and logic.

Can’t always ignore them either. Like, when your polemical adversary is trying to jail you for ten years. I refer to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who indicted me and two others for abetting democracy in Oklahoma.

Before our recent arraignment, I attended a news conference at which a number of concerned citizens, legislators and leaders of taxpayer and voter groups spoke out against this politically motivated travesty. I noted that we, the Oklahoma 3, acted in good faith to follow Oklahoma’s regulation requiring petition circulators to be state residents. Even though the regulation has been challenged in court as a violation of the First Amendment.

But Mr. Edmondson told reporters, “This is not a First Amendment issue.” Then, admitting the opposite was true, he added, “If the courts determine that the state’s process violates the First Amendment, so be it.”

First, he pretends to be oblivious to the First Amendment issue. Then, he acts as if he can do whatever he pleases, Constitution or not, unless a court steps in to stop him.

As someone observed at FreePaulJacob​.com, Edmondson’s cavalier disregard for the Constitution, the very highest law, doesn’t square with his own official responsibilities. It’s just not consistent with his oath of office.

He’s sworn to uphold the Oklahoma constitution and the U.S. Constitution. Not prosecute those of us who take both very seriously.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Common Sense free trade & free markets

Guilt and Innocence in Oklahoma

Last October, two colleagues and I were indicted by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Our crime? Helping a petition drive to limit the growth of government spending.

Supposedly, we three willfully violated an arbitrary residency requirement for signature gatherers.

As I’ve explained at the freepauljacob​.com website, we acted in good faith to comply with Oklahoma’s unconstitutional regulation. If the prosecution succeeds — if we do get jailed for ten years — it would be a chilling precedent. And sadly, that’s the point: to intimidate citizens from making any future petitions of government that might inconvenience the political establishment.

That’s why a Steve Forbes editorial asked, “Has North Korea Annexed Oklahoma?” and termed Edmondson’s actions “thuggish.” A Wall Street Journal editorial called the AG’s prosecution “bizarre,” expressing fear it would make citizens “think twice before challenging political elites.”

Several Oklahoma legislators have called the prosecution wrong-​headed and politically-motivated.

So, Edmondson has begun — you guessed it — a PR offensive. In an opinion piece for a local paper, he wrote, “The Oklahoma Supreme Court and the multicounty grand jury both independently found these defendants to be in substantial violation of Oklahoma law.”

But wait a second. Neither a court, nor the grand jury, have found us guilty of anything. As an attorney and the highest law enforcement officer in the state, Edmondson must know this.We get our day in court. See you there.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.