The Fools We Elect to “Serve” Us

The Fools We Elect to “Serve” Us

By Leon Howard

From time to time, the fools we elect to “serve” us violate their oath of office and the People suffer because of it – This happens more often than would seem reasonable for, supposedly, intelligent officials.

Case in point:

The Stormans family, who owns Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy in Olympia, has spent over $500,000 of their own money to defend their right to not sell the Plan B “morning after” pill, arguing that it disregards their deeply held religious beliefs. After a 5 year protracted battle in which the state government spent over $300,000 per year fighting against this family-owned small business to force them to violate their Constitutionally-protected right of conscience, a federal judge definitively ruled that the state is wrong. (And they wonder why we have a budget “shortfall”?) In this landmark case, Judge Leighton ruled that the law in question violates the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion: “The Board of Pharmacy’s 2007 rules are not neutral, and they are not generally  applicable. They were designed instead to force religious objectors to dispense Plan B, and they sought to do so despite the fact that refusals to deliver for all sorts of secular reasons were permitted.” In his rebuke of the state’s breach of the Constitution, Judge Leighton continued, “The Board’s regulations have been aimed at Plan B and conscientious objections from their inception. Indeed, Plaintiffs have presented reams of [internal government documents] demonstrating that the predominant purpose of the rule was to stamp out the right to refuse [for religious reasons].” Attorney General Rob McKenna and his office erroneously argued on behalf of the State that if exceptions were made for religious beliefs, the state would be establishing religion, in violation of the First Amendment.  McKenna’s legal team recently spent 11 days in federal court trying to convince a Judge to force the owners of Ralph's Thriftway to provide medicine that they believe will take a human life. Undeterred by this week’s ruling, the Governor is now conferring with the AG’s office on the best path to an appeal. The question for McKenna now becomes – “Do I continue to spend state taxpayer money to appeal this decision, or do I back off and give Mr. Stormans the dignity he deserves?" Shahram Hadian, candidate for Washington State governor, voiced it best: “The ramifications of this case are huge. If the state continues with its witch hunt and ultimately prevails, it opens a Pandora’s Box. Any government agency could force individuals to violate their right of conscience in any matter. Governor Gregoire and AG Rob McKenna, STOP your persecution of our constitutionally protected religious freedom and right of conscience.” I believe Shahram Hadian has covered the point Mr. McKenna needs to address in this case but an even bigger question for me is: If AG Rob McKenna, who wants to be Governor, cannot respect the First Amendment as Attorney General, what other inalienable rights will he “interpret” against the People if elected to be Governor? Who will be the next victim of an over-reaching elected official and will they be forced to spend their savings to fight for our rights? Since I originally wrote this, AG McKenna has appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco so the Stormans must spend more of their money to defend their ‘right of conscience’ and Mr. McKenna will spend more of Washington State’s Taxpayers money to rob us of our “absolute right of conscience”! And he wants to be my governor? I think not!