EDITORIAL: Just enforce the state laws
WELL, AT LEAST it can be said that when district attorneys lose their legal bearings about enforcing the law, it’s a bipartisan exercise.
First it was Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth, a Republican, who warned schools that criminal charges might be lodged if the details from the state’s new sex education plan became part of the curriculum. Southworth argued that instructing students about condoms and contraception, prior to the age of consent, could put teachers on the wrong side of the law if the kids subsequently engaged in relations.
Now Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox, a Democrat, has drawn his own line in the legal sand. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s gun decision last week, Fox says he no longer will enforce any Wisconsin gun laws.
WHAT DOES the district attorney mean? According to the Associated Press, his statement said Jackson County no longer will prosecute violations of Wisconsin prohibitions on concealed weapons, transporting uncased or loaded guns, carrying guns in public buildings and taverns — even carrying switchblade knives.
Fox says the high court ruling makes all of Wisconsin’s gun laws unconstitutional.
“These so-called public safety laws only put decent law-abiding citizens at a dangerous disadvantage when it comes to their personal safety, and I for one am glad that this decades-long era of defective thinking on gun issues is over,” Fox said.
He closes his statement: “Let Freedom Ring.”
THAT’S A POLITICAL argument, not a legal analysis. Ditto the earlier foolishness from DA Southworth.
In the first place, as legal analysis, Fox’s stand would be wildly wrong.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling was an extension of an earlier decision, originating in the District of Columbia, which had established that the Second Amendment included an individual right to own firearms — not just that states could maintain an armed “well-regulated militia.” Last week’s ruling affirmed that the right exists in all 50 states, not just the federally-controlled D.C. zone.
The decision did not strike down, as Fox seems to believe, any and all gun regulations across America.
In fact, sorting out exactly what the ruling really means may keep lawyers busy for years.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, though, such rulings should not give license to politically-motivated prosecutors to superimpose their personal beliefs on the law.
We have no doubt the good voters of Wisconsin put prosecutors in place with the expectation they will enforce the law, not reinterpret statutes to suit themselves.
The simple fact is, though, mischievous prosecutors can pursue their own agendas with relative impunity. Under Wisconsin law, elected district attorneys have wide discretion when it comes to charging. The intent is to permit prosecutors to assess individual cases and proceed in a manner aimed at delivering justice to all parties. But it also can allow an unscrupulous prosecutor motivated by politics or a personal agenda to, essentially, distort the law.
The remedy rolls around every Election Day, when fair-minded voters can send these rascals packing.
I just sent Mr. William R. Barth of the Beloit Daily News this:
Dear Mr. Barth,
It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of your editorial "Just enforce the state laws" and my opinion piece "Go after the real criminals". Thanks for posting my letter.
I think, however, that you have a problem with history and the role of the people and the courts in our society. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, first off, and any law in conflict with the Constitution is null and void. That is fact.
The courts are not pro-active - they don't rule on Constitutionality until a suit is brought challenging a particular law. One might wish for a pro-active court system, but that could cause mischief in the other direction, depending on the political leanings of the judge involved, so I would advocate leaving bad enough alone there.
Anyway, the purpose of a state's attorney, as I see it, is to bring charges against people who are causing injury to the community by their actions, and to use common sense to prevent prosecutions based on faulty laws that would likely cause problems such as large payments of taxpayer's money to people harmed by the attempted enforcement of those faulty laws. I can see why Mr. Southworth warned against schools following the new sex-education law, since its literal interpretation would be corrupting the morals of minors, a crime. Perhaps this was a subtle hint for the Wisconsin legislature to revisit that law and re-write it to eliminate any possibility of teachers being charged with contributing to delinquency of a minor by attempting to follow the law.
The Supreme Court recently incorporated the Second Amendment, an action quite long overdue. This places it on the same level as the First Amendment, which prohibits the government, state, local, and federal, from infringing on the freedom of speech and the press. I am sure you would agree that any governmental agency attempting "speech controls" would and should be slapped down quickly and solidly.
The same concept is now attached to the Second Amendment. True, there will be thousands of lawsuits, each aimed at one or more of the 20,000-odd now un-Constitutional laws on the books. The courts will have to try each and every suit and render decisions, which will probably be appealed by officials fearful of losing power, however meaningless and petty that power is.
In America, our citizens are empowered to decide the law as jurors. Sadly, this power has been ignored and actively denied by judges in their instructions to juries. The power of nullification means that the people can effectively overturn a stupid or illegal law without waiting for the courts to rule. I see the actions of Mr. Southworth and Mr. Fox to be similar to this principle. Mr. Fox may be a bit gung-ho about this particular Supreme Court decision - I can understand that, since our Second Amendment rights have been systematically infringed upon starting with the Jim Crow laws after the Civil War, and continuing with New York's Sullivan Act, the federal National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968 (copied from 1930's German law), Illinois' FOID Card law, Wisconsin's Handgun Hotline, and all the rest.
Mr. Fox can see clearly that the Supreme Court's decision has effectively nullified every gun-control law now on the books, even if the courts have not yet ruled on those individual laws. He is trying to prevent his county from having to pay tax dollars to plaintiffs who successfully contest, say, concealed carry in his county. This also has the side-effect of preventing the suit that may well overturn Wisconsin's concealed-carry ban from being tested in courts in his county.
(Looking at it that way, perhaps Mr. Fox did us freedom-lovers a disservice by refusing to prosecute people for violating the useless and un-Constitutional laws on the books - because someone who is not prosecuted for exercising an inalienable right has no standing to bring suit to overturn the law he has not run afoul of.)
The Supreme Court decision does indeed strike down all of Wisconsin's present gun-control laws, but they will not be removed until each and every one is tested in court. There is nothing to fear from these laws being removed from the books - ask yourself, honestly - how many crimes have been prevented, say, by preventing a handgun transfer to someone who already owns six handguns until a waiting period expires, or by requiring federal background checks on law-abiding people before they can buy a gun from a dealer. The honest answer is zero. All these laws have ever succeeded in doing is preventing good folks from defending themselves. Criminals will always ignore the law. Our prosecutors should be lauded for attempting to prevent lawsuits that will cost us money, and should concentrate on prosecuting those who are actually harming others.
By the way - what's with the 'even carrying switchblade knives' comment? You do understand that the only reason for laws regulating knives was politicians in the 1950's getting all worked up over movies like "The Asphalt Jungle" - Google 'The Asphalt Jungle switchblade laws" turns up one typical comment near the top: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=298931 . You do understand that simply carrying something does nothing to harm society - until you pull it out and commit a crime like robbery, rape, or murder with it, right? Sort of like all those shootings in Beloit and Chicago that would never have happened is "gun control" actually worked.
Regards,
Chuck Kuecker
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