Letter to the Editor: No Standing?
KELSEYVILLE — There seems to be a new way for our government to thwart the will of the people ? just do not enforce the laws you disagree with and the Supreme Court will say that those who are for enforcement will have no standing to object.
This is exactly what happened last month when the court overturned California”s Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.
No matter how you feel about gay rights, the issue in both of the above cases, the ability of the executive branch to enforce only the laws they agree with is not an acceptable way do the people”s business. If the executive branch disagrees with a law it should work to change it as is their right.
If they are allowed to have the privilege of only enforcing the laws they agree with the voters have no standing in a Court to resist the will of the Executive .
This is a very important issue, in my opinion, because California has a process where the voters can go directly to the people to change laws, or add laws, by means of collecting signatures on a petition to put things on the ballot. Not all states have this ability but I think it is a very important right, which can be denied, even if passed, if not enforced .
We have separate branches of government to protect the rights of the citizens but these rights are not protected by selective law enforcement.
For the record I think all people are to be treated equally before the law and, in the cases above, this should have been the argument before the Supreme Court, not tossing out the cases because the parties had no standing to object as the federal and state executive branch chose to not do their job.
If this situation is allowed to continue we could see our nation with a very different form of government than that intended by The Founding Fathers.
