BY DWIGHT SHELLMAN
Dwight Shellman has been a Woody Creek attorney for more than 40 years. During that time he was a county commissioner and a member of the county planning & zoning commission and the RFTA board. He is past chair of the US National Ramsar Committee and president of the Caddo Lake Institute, a conservation non-profit which he co-founded and is retiring from after 14 years. His institute sponsors world-class wetland science programs to support local community stewardship of Caddo Lake, and internationally important Ramsar wetland in northeast Texas..
Thirty years ago I took my first oath as a public official — as a new Pitkin County commissioner –“to protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Colorado.” I remember being a little startled saying these words, wondering, “I understand this with judges, law enforcement folks, etc, but, when will I ever face that kind of question as a mere county commissioner?” Well, today the words of this oath are actually pretty comforting, mainly because every one of our local officials had taken the same oath. And since we know them all personally, we can ask them to repeat and follow their oaths — here and now.
So, what if we asked our local officials to retake their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution? An act of protest? Or just assurances to us locals that they will not be complicit in any constitutionally-prohibited actions. Retaking these oaths now is wise — and timely.
Especially in today’s environment of widespread press reports of secret and warrantless searches, phone and internet taps of citizen’s communications, or government surveillance of Quakers, or Muslims, or others while they are using their Bill of Rights privileges to peaceably assemble and to petition their governments to disagree with some federal action or law.
- Especially in the face of repeated federal assertions of the authority to make secret searches of homes, places of worship, library and medical records — and to compel the custodians to not tell their patrons, secret arrests and jailing without warrants. or federal court hearings, and worse.
- Especially when the American Bar Association of attorneys, to which I belong, felt the need to issue warnings to Congress, the President and Attorney General — so read on.
What if we asked each local offical tp issue a “signing statement” (to accompany his or her oath re-affirmation) saying how their departments will defend our Bill of Rights guarantees? What if their signing statements announced new departmental rules — for example, each official’s instructions to their employees, on when to refuse and to publicly report any request to be part of any “national security” activities that are prohibited by the Bill of Rights? These are statements would be proper “official” acts — to show how Pitkin County will implement the Colorado Legislature’s direction to local governments not to participate in such violations. (Yes, that happened too, so read on.)
Well, the Woody Creek Caucus did ask our local officials to do all of those things. They unanimously passed a “Bill of Rights Defense Resolution” at their meeting on March 30 at the Woody Creek Store & Community Center. The resolution reminds our elected officials about the oaths they took “to protect and defend” the Constitution. But, instead of preaching and hand-wringing, the Caucus called on local officials to act now!
- First, with fact-finding hearings to take evidence on all the reported concerns about constitutional violations by federal agencies, and the pathetic apathy of the patriots we elected to Congress.
- If the sheriff, the. commissioners, the library and hospital boards held joint local hearings, a consensus could develop on the best ways to implement the 2005 Bill of Rights Joint Senate Resolution that was adopted by both houses of the Colorado Legislature. Hearings could also look at similar resolutions in other states and communities. Telluride did it. Carbondale did it. So have 400 US local governments around the country.
- Second, by announcing official “signing statements”, informed by the hearings, that say how each department’s employees will respond if asked to be involved in Bill of Rights violations.
“Signing statements” by public officials aren’t novel either. The President has elevated this to a new “double speak” art form. He uses signing statements -when he signs new laws -to say how he may not follow them. His recent signing statement on the USA Patriot Act renewal — which required him to “report” secret surveillance activities to Congress – – said he would only follow these legal obligations when he decides to!
This has happened because Congress won’t do its job of oversight of agency excesses. Congress won’t do it nationally. They sit in D.C., distant and obscured from accountability to us, because these days you apparently have to. pay lobbyists to get “access” to your Congressionals. But we don’t have to pay to get access to our local officials. We just elect them, or not. They are, or should be, willing to retake and keep the oaths they took for us.
What if an official oath-taking and signing statement phenomenon starts to happen around the state — or the nation? It could be where we start to take back our Constitutional powers from an out-of-control President and attorney general — and a cowed Congress that is hiding out on this one.
What are the Feds going to do? Arrest local officials for taking their oath of office? For following the warnings of the Colorado Legislature? For following the warnings of The American Bar Association? For publicly reporting and refusing to be involved in requests that violate the Bill of Rights? Not likely.
Woody Creek Caucus delegations are delivering their resolution to local officials and asking for appointments to discuss possible action features. They will also present it to other civic organizations with similar requests. The caucus will offer to get experts (like state legislators or the American Bar Association) to present evidence and to suggest local Bill of Rights Defense policies they could include in signing statements by the 4th of July. (Politicians who won’t make a speech about their commitments to the Constitution on Independence Day require careful watching.)
You too can tell your sheriff, commissioners, library and hospital board members that you also want then, to join the emerging. local government Bill of Rights Defense Resolution movement. Get your caucus and your other civic organizations to ratify principles like those in the Woody Creek Caucus’s Bill of Rights Defense Resolution.
The Woody Creek Caucus is excited about being part of this “teachable moment.” Kids and grandchildren would be good companions at local government hearings, or when our officials retake oaths and announce Bill of Rights Defense policies in their “signing statements” that agree with the Colorado Legislature. We can all use these hearings to learn what is really going on out there. Almost no one knows or remembers our constitutional history, or why it makes us the hope of the world. The lessons to be relearned are how we constitutionally invented our special nation, and how our history is punctuated with patriotic challenges to similar attempts to erode the Bill of Rights. Ben Franklin said that it’s up to each generation to relearn patriotism when their time comes. Or the next generation will lose their rights to double-speak politicians bearing “signing statements.”
It’s not about George Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, Republicans, or the next election. It’s about all those who hold these federal elected positions, now and from now on. If these violations are not challenged now, then the next Democrats holding these offices could claim the same powers. The Bill of Rights is an American heritage that arch-conservatives and arch-liberals, and most other folks in between, can agree to fight for — together. Wouldn’t it be nice, for a change, to share such a common ground with our neighbors? Wouldn’t that be a great way to become a single society again –after being worked over for quite a few years by “uniters not dividers” (or was that the first double-speak signing statement?)
