Should the Federal Government step in when states violate the Constitution of the United States or

[Cleita]

the civil and property rights of Americans? Are the right wing Heritage Foundation (Koch Brothers) backed governors taking over our states even possibly leading us into another Civil War?

I listen, watch and read alternative media, because I don’t trust corporate media to give me the whole truth. So today on “Democracy Now!” and “The Thom Hartmann Show”, the lead story was about the arrest of protestors in Wisconsin being arrested by Governor Scott Walker’s goons for singing protest songs. Thom even read the provision in the First Amendment of the US Constitution that applies to freedom of speech of the press and the right to peaceful protest.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

He spoke to journalist, Matthew Rothschild, editor and publisher of The Progressive magazine, who was detained while covering one of the protests. Rothschild was charged with misdemeanor obstruction and resisting arrest after photographing the arrests of other demonstrators singing in the rotunda.

Meanwhile last week in North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory, signed sweeping voter suppression laws into effect that appear to target the African American vote.

Within hours of Gov. Pat McCrory signing a Republican-backed bill this week making sweeping changes to the state's voting laws, local elections boards in two college towns made moves that could make it harder for students to vote.

The Watauga County Board of Elections voted Monday to eliminate an early voting site and election-day polling precinct on the campus of Appalachian State University.

Also last week following Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s blatant take over of Detroit’s elected government, resulted in a ploy to invite auction house Christie’s in to evaluate Detroit Institute of Arts museum to possibly sell the art treasures contained within.

Snyder, the Republican who led the charge for Michigan’s enactment of an anti-labor “right-to-work” law last year, announced that he had approved legal steps to steer the state’s largest city toward bankruptcy. He made no bones about who was in charge, declaring in a statement attached to the bankruptcy filing that “I’m making this tough decision…”

Earlier this year, the governor engineered a state-driven takeover of Detroit that disempowered the elected mayor and city council and gave authority over decisions about the city’s finances, service delivery and direction to an appointed “emergency manager.”

On Thursday afternoon, Snyder signed off on the filing of paperwork seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. On Friday, a Michigan judge ordered Snyder's emergency manager to withdraw the federal bankruptcy petition. Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's order declared the 2012 Michigan law that allowed Snyder to approve the city's bankruptcy filing violated the state Constitution. Michigan's Republican attorney general immediately announced that he would appeal the ruling, and analysts warned that federal bankruptcy law often trumps state protections.

Shouldn’t the Federal Government intervene when the states violate the Constitution of the United States and when they suppress the rights of citizens to vote and to protest their actions? These are the acts of a totalitarian states within our democracy and should not be tolerated by our Federal Government.

Amendment IV (1791)

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Of course since our Federal Government seems to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment, maybe it’s too much to hope for them to step in. I'm not trying to start something here but am genuinely concerned about how far states will go in defiance of the United States Constitution before the Federal Government has to step in like they did when the southern states seceded from the Union? It seems what these rogue governors are doing and what is also going on that is similar in other states like anti-women laws in Texas amounts to an attempt to secede from any control by the Union. What do other DUers think about this?

[Jim Lane]

2. It's done on a more case-by-case basis, not by raising an army to defend the Union.

For example, if state or local police infringe your rights, you can go into federal court with a "1983" action (one brought under Title 42, Section 1983 of the United States Code). The federal courts can award you money damages for the violation, payable by the individual police officers and/or their employer (depending on various factors).

Similarly, in some of the voting-rights cases, federal judges have issued injunctions against some of the voter suppression tactics.