[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/20/11

[Paul Lehto]

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 12:36 AM, Smith, Brad <BSmith at law.capital.edu>wrote:

> Surely it doesn't need to be pointed out (well, of course that's wrong,
> else it wouldn't need to be pointed out) that other sovereigns also can
> toss people in jail without trial, take property without just compensation,
> prohibit all gun ownership, search property without just cause, deny the
> right to jury trial, etc. etc., yet our sovereign "We the People" cannot.
>

No, that the government may abuse its power and become our master rather
than our servant as intended is the point of many constitutional
protections.

But my point is that the interpretation of constitutional provisions such
as the First Amendment has now gone so far that not only is government
constrained from being a "master", it is so constrained with regard to
election-related speech that it is unable to be a faithful servant - one
that dictates NONE of the content of speech but does structure some minimal
order to the process in order to serve rational, informed decision-making,
just as an Executive Assistant will provide some semblance of balanced,
ordered information to the President or CEO they work for.

The fear of government-as-master, while appropriate, has gone too far so
that it has also eliminated the proper role of government as servant.

Government as *servant*, it should not need to be pointed out, does not
toss people in jail without trials, etc.

Paul Lehto, J.D.

>
>
> --
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4026 (cell)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20111223/c30604fb/attachment.html>