After President Trump announced the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the three Governors of New York, California, and Washington State said they would form the ‘United States Climate Alliance’ to comply with the terms of the Paris agreement on their own.

It could all just be political posturing but, if this is a binding commitment, the arrangement may well run afoul of the Interstate Compacts Clause found in Article I, section 10, clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Generally speaking, that clause prevents states from entering into agreements among themselves or with foreign powers without consent of Congress.  Not all interstate compacts require Congressional approval, but those that increase the power of the states at the expense of the federal government do. [Virginia v. Tennessee]  A state Climate Alliance that looks like a treaty and smells like a treaty would be the kind of separate arrangement diminishing federal power that the Constitution was intended to prevent.

The interstate compact is another tool in the toolbox of our Republic. As with other tools, interstate compacts can be used for good or ill.  Interstate compacts have been used to establish government agencies to deal with common problems faced by several states, such as with the Colorado River and the Great Lakes.

The proposed Health Care Compact was popular in Tea Party circles some years ago.  If approved by Congress, it would transfer control over healthcare programs and funding to signatory states.  More recently, Progressives have talked about using an interstate compact to preserve Obamacare in signatory states if the law is repealed.

Also, there’s been renewed interest lately in the National Popular Vote interstate compact plan. That plan would require participating states to cast their electoral college votes for the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.  The compact would not go into effect until enough states ratified it to create a majority – 270 votes – in the electoral college.  The plan has been adopted in enough states to get to 165 electoral college votes.  The Oregon House voted last month to join the plan.  That would be seven more electoral college votes if adopted.  The interesting wrinkle here is that, for the first time, the matter would be put to all Oregon voters by way of ballot initiative.  Supporters hope that passage by popular vote in Oregon would inspire similar referendum efforts in red states. 

The interstate compact is a tool for good or ill.  Compacts can be used to frustrate tyranny – as in blocking Obamacare – or to destroy essential features of our Republic and usher in direct democracy – the National Popular Vote plan – something the Founders thought would be a very bad idea.  The National Popular Vote compact would use the Constitution to destroy the Constitution. Fiendishly clever, don’t you think?  But that’s the Progressive Left for you.
_________________________________
Constitution tweets – most Tuesdays 10 a.m. ET
@LiberatoUS (collected here)
 

The Constitution protects many valuable rights we often take for granted.  The 6th Amendment guarantees a speedy trial by jury, with assistance of counsel.  The 14th Amendment provides for due process of law which includes the presumption of innocence.  You are innocent until proven guilty, a cornerstone of criminal law.

The Supreme Court recently held that Colorado may not require people whose convictions are overturned to prove they are innocent before they can recover any court fees or restitution they may have paid.  The legal basis for requiring the payment of money was the conviction.  But if the conviction is overturned, the presumption of innocence once again attaches, so people should not have to prove they are innocent to get their money back, the Court reasoned.

The Court weighed three considerations.  First, there is a significant private interest in getting one’s money back.  Second, the risk of a bad outcome under Colorado’s procedure was great because proving innocence is hard to do and the cost of doing so might be greater than the sum involved.  Third, the governmental interest in keeping the money is low because the state really has no rightful claim to it.  The third point seems weak and tautological to me, what lawyer’s call a  ‘make-weight’ argument.

Notice that the presumption of innocence is not just for criminal cases.  Colorado’s refund procedure was civil in nature.  As the Court said, “[U]nder the Due Process Clause, [an individual] who has not been adjudged guilty of any crime may not be punished.” Even civilly.

So much for the twists and turns of the case, but don’t lose sight of the big picture:  The purpose of government is to protect our rights.  The Constitution plays an important role in doing just that.  The presumption of innocence is foundational to our criminal justice system and we should be on guard against its erosion.

“We are in the midst of a college hoax epidemic, and it shows no signs of getting any better. Just last week at St. Olaf College, a racist note placed on a black student’s car was revealed as a hoax, written by someone who wanted to “draw attention to concerns about the campus climate.” At USC last month, someone hung a “no black people allowed” sign outside of a residence hall; the fellow who hung this reputable message turned out to be…a black person himself. At Indiana State University, a professor was arrested for “reporting phony anti-Islamic threats.” At the University of Michigan, a young woman revealed that she had lied about a pro-Trump hate crime and made up an attack on herself. At Capital University in February, a student admitted to fabricating a hate-filled note that was posted to his dorm’s door.”
 
More from the College Fix

The violent attempts to shut down free speech at UC Berkeley and Auburn University did not come out of nowhere.  In 1965, the Left took a left turn towards authoritarianism.  Herbert Marcuse, a committed Marxist, wrote an essay with the oxymoronic title “Repressive Tolerance” in which he advocated “the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism, discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care, etc.“  In other words, if the Left doesn’t agree with what you say, you can’t say it.  Marcuse went on to advise restrictions on what universities can teach.

How do you repress your way to tolerance?  George Orwell observed that the use of incongruent means ensures you will never reach your stated ends, but let’s play along with Marcuse.  His problem is that most people have a ‘false consciousness’ inculcated by the ruling class and its values.  The only way to get people’s heads’ straight, i.e., to agree with the hard Left, is to ban all other points of view so that people only get all Left all the time, in terms of ideas.  “Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right…,” Marcuse went on to say. 

Methods of intolerance used by today’s Thought Police include intimidation, disruption, and even violence.  Hence, former Mizzou prof Melissa Click’s call that fateful day for “muscle” to “get this reporter out of here.”

Even if you agree with the Left’s policies, that is not the end of the inquiry.  You have to go on and decide whether you are willing to use violence, if necessary, to shut everyone else up.  Maybe so, but then you would have to come face-to-face with your own authoritarianism and barbarism.

Marcuse promises free speech in the long run, after all heads have been cracked, false consciousness scrubbed, human nature changed, and all toe the authoritarian Left’s party line.  Good luck with that.  Makes about as much sense as Marx’s promise that the state will ‘wither away’ after socialism progresses to communism.  Name one communist dictator who ever gave up power willingly.  Just one.  Then ask yourself how likely it is that the authoritarian Left, if allowed to grip the reins of power, would ever restore free speech to anyone who wants to criticize their orthodoxy.  Paradigm shifters and anyone interested in human progress need not apply.

There is a reason we have the Constitution – to keep a tiny group or even a majority from amassing that kind of power – and a reason we have the First Amendment – so you can generally say what you like without being silenced or coerced into saying things you don’t believe.

More here (“A New, Old Challenge” p. 5) and here.
 
 
 

  - Erasing the Past to Control the Future –

This event will be livestreamed this Sunday (4/30/17) (with opportunity to ask questions) and archived at –
https://www.facebook.com/boyko.antonov

Hope you can join us or watch it later.

Details here -
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2917113
 

A recent student article recommended the supposed fact-checking website Snopes.  Before you believe everything Snopes tells you, here are some things you ought to know:

• “it’s political “fact-checker” describes herself as a liberal” (she has a long history of taking liberal positions). Daily Caller
• it’s methods are dubious:
  -It claims that partisans who have run for political office can be neutral impartial fact-checkers
  -it won’t reveal how it evaluates the fact-checkers it hires
  -it does not list all the individuals who contribute to a story
  -it turns away questions directed to whether and how it assesses the reliability of its fact-checkers
  -Snopes stories typically don’t mention whether the people under the microscope were contacted for their side of things.  Forbes
• accusations have piled up about the personal behavior of Snopes personnel (e.g., embezzling company money and spending it on prostitutes. See Daily Mail)

 
And Snopes is one of the organizations Facebook uses to sniff out fake news?  Wow.

Like George Orwell said, ‘everybody is lying to you.’

The UC-Davis student senate is removing the American flag from its meetings because “the concept of United States of America and patriotism is different for every individual.”  This is a not-so-subtle invitation to believe that the foundational and commonly understood idea of America isn’t important anymore.
 
Don’t be a dope.  Before you let them march you off a cliff, ask some hard questions first:
 

• If you deliberately strip away the foundation, how can a house remain standing?
  
  
•  Can you build anything without laying a foundation first?  If not America’s founding principles, what principles, exactly? 
  
  
• Why do you suppose they’re trying to get you to let go of the foundational idea of America?  What hidden agenda do they have?  Where do they want to take us?  What is their goal and why don’t they spell it out? 
  
  
• How long did Rome last after people were no longer willing to fight for the idea of Rome? 
  
  
• This country has been very good to the leaders of the student senate, as much as they might hate to admit it.  Why would they deliberately dishonor the people who sacrificed their lives so Americans could enjoy self-government, freedom, and prosperity? 
  
  
• Ben Franklin was asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention gave us. His answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.’  What goes into the care and feeding of a republic (I.e. self-government)?  How is it possible to keep our Republic if people are no longer even willing to tolerate symbols of the Republic?

 
The people who want you to forget America’s founding principles are up to no good.  Don’t be a robot.  Think for yourself.
 
Story here.
 
 

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security made a bad mistake this past week. It demanded that Twitter reveal the identity of the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service employee who has been sending out tweets criticizing Trump’s immigration policies.  Twitter filed suit on Thursday to block the demand which the government withdrew the very next day, Friday.  Going after a critic’s free speech rights, wow – what were they thinking?

This is not a small matter.  There are 22 million public employees in the country.  A number of Twitter accounts critical of Trump have sprung up that appear to be run by employees or former employees of the National Park Service, the Labor Department and other agencies. 

The Supreme Court has held that government employees generally have free speech rights if they are expressing themselves as citizens on matters of public concern.  That was decided in 1968 in a case called Pickering v. Board of Education.  The government employee in that case was a high school teacher who got fired for writing a letter to the newspaper criticizing the local school board.  That kind of speech is protected, the Court ruled, but the Court later carved out an exception for government employees speaking in the course of their duties.  This is the scope of employment exception, but it does not apply to the accounts on Twitter.  So it’s pretty clear those employees have free speech rights as citizens and the government can’t shut them up.

A couple of other things about this situation are interesting.  First, Twitter argued in its court filing that political speech is more important than other kinds of speech.  That theory comes from a 1948 book Free Speech and its Relation to Self-Government by Alexander Meiklejohn.  The theory sounds good, but I worry that elevating political speech can be used as an excuse to minimize the importance of other types of speech, like commercial speech.  It could lead to the government being able to quash advertising more easily just because it’s not political speech.  That doesn’t sound so great to me.

The other interesting thing is that the ACLU was all set to defend the Twitter user had the case gone forward.  This puts the ACLU on the side of the angels in this matter.  Isn’t the ACLU part of the fringe Progressive Left?  Yes, but it’s also true that Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General of Virginia who is a well-respected conservative figure, worked with the ACLU to promote civil liberties issues in Virginia a few years ago.  The thing about civil liberties is that they are what political scientists call ‘cross-cutting cleavages’.  You’ll find support for free speech and other civil liberties all across the political spectrum. That makes for strange political bedfellows, sometimes, as people on the Left and Right join forces to defend the Bill of Rights. Like the time Tea Party Patriots teamed up with the ACLU to fight unlawful data collection by the government.  As Tea Party Patriots said at the time, we have our differences with the ACLU, but there are some issues everyone can agree on. 
 
 
 
 
 

Here’s how high schoolers in Kansas used their First Amendment freedom to force their principal to resign.  Something didn’t smell right to them and they started digging….

Story at Kansas City Star