I was somewhat surprised to find a packed audience at the Tuesday, August 17 Board of County Commissioners meeting. At a typical BOCC meeting, the commissioners might have four people in the audience? Maybe five?
Here, we had a standing-room-only crowd.
I had briefly reviewed the agenda prior to the meeting, and couldn’t immediately think of a reason for this turnout. I did notice that much of the audience — perhaps most of the audience? — were the same folks who had turned out at the August 10 Archuleta School District board meeting to protest against mandated mask-wearing in the schools. But as far as I knew, the BOCC was not going to be discussing masks.
Ah! … but they were going to be discussing the Constitution.
County Attorney Todd Weaver had composed, at the request of the BOCC, a resolution entitled, “A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO REAFFIRM THE POWERS DETAILED IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION”.
PURSUANT TO the powers and duties bestowed upon it by our citizens, the Board of County Commissioners of Archuleta County does hereby resolve and affirms that it fully supports the enumerated powers as detailed within the Colorado Constitution, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We further reaffirm that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” (Tenth Amendment)
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF ARCHULETA COUNTY, COLORADO, THAT
1) In order to protect the citizens of Archuleta County, the following actions will not be tolerated within Archuleta County:
a) Laws prohibiting citizens from the free exercise of their religion or the right to peaceably assemble as guaranteed in the First Amendment.
b) Laws depriving its citizens of “life, liberty or property, without the due process of law” as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
c) Confiscation of firearms not in compliance with the law or constitutionality protected rights.
d) The detainment or search of citizens without probable cause and proper due process, or the informed consent of the citizen.
e) Arrests with continued incarcerations without criminal charges and proper due process, including but not limited to public and speedy jury trials, where required by law, in a court of competent jurisdiction.
f) Domestic utilization of our nation’s military operating under powers granted under the laws of war against United States citizens, except as permitted by law.
g) Arrest of citizens or seizure of person or property or any other action in violation of any constitutional provision under the Colorado or United States Constitution.
2) All law enforcement agencies are encouraged to continue to consult and work closely with local law enforcement and the District Attorney to assure that the people’s rights guaranteed under the Colorado Constitution, United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are protected and preserved from any unlawful encroachments.
APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 17th day of August, 2021.
The meeting began with a chance for public comment, and a handful of audience members had signed up to offer testimony concerning the re-affirmation of Constitutional powers. A couple of the speakers, we had heard a week earlier at the School Board meeting. We’d heard last week, for example, from local activist Jimmy Jones. Here is a portion of Mr. Jones’ testimony on August 17, which he read to the commissioners:
“While enjoying the freedoms that many before us sacrificed and died to secure, we the people went about our daily lives, and took no notice, as little by little our liberties were encroached upon.
“We find ourselves in this room today, not because it has taken many decades to find a group of willing public officials to take action; we find ourselves here today, because we have failed the brave patriots who came before us. However, there is hope. We the people are awakening once again, rising from our stupor and recognizing the mistakes we have made. We have found our way back to those precious founding documents. And in those documents we find all that we need to operate as a Constitutional county. No resolution required.
“We the people don’t need permission to exercise our God-given rights. This board of commissioners, the county sheriff, the county attorney, our judges, nor any other public servant have any say in what rights we the people can exercise and what rights we cannot.”
Mr. Jones makes some interesting points, but he’s apparently living in a fantasy world, if he believes the Board of County Commissioners, sheriff and judges have “no say” in what rights you and I may exercise.
Granted, the US Constitution delineates a few — a very few — specific rights which are granted to we the people (By God? By the signers of the Constitution? By Supreme Court decisions? By general acceptance?) and County Attorney Todd Weaver described those rights very accurately (in my humble opinion) in the resolution approved by the County Commissioners on Tuesday.
But the primary purpose of the US Constitution, based on the volume of text in each ‘Article’, is to define how new laws — laws that extend the power of government into our lives — will be made and enforced. The so-called “Bill of Rights” is a fascinating little segment, but in reality, the US Constitution is focused largely on defining Congress, the Presidency, and the Judicial Branch.
For example. “Confiscation of firearms not in compliance with the law or constitutionality protected rights.” Here we perceive the conjunction of two elements: our (limited and few) Constitutional rights, and the power of various legislative bodies — federal, state and local — to create laws.
Thousands of laws.
In the case of “Confiscation of firearms,” the Colorado General Assembly, as authorized by the Colorado Constitution, passed a ‘Red Flag Law’ in 2019 which allows firearms to be confiscated from an individual, when a court has determined said individual to be a danger to himself/herself or others. During 2020, Colorado families, individuals and law enforcement agencies filed 111 requests to confiscate guns under this ‘Extreme Risk Protection Act’, and in a little less than half of those cases — 47 cases — a one-year-long protection order was granted.
Even before the “Red Flag Law” went into effect in Colorado, the authorizing legislation was challenged by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners — not on the basis of its constitutionality but because, RMGO claimed, the legislation was improperly handled by the General Assembly. The case was dismissed.
As far as I can tell, 19 states now have ‘red flag’ laws and none have been declared ‘unconstitutional’.
One tricky aspect to our “God-given rights” is that the US Constitution expressly allows federal, state and local legislators to create new laws — theoretically, an unlimited number of federal, state and local laws — and nearly every law passed limits someone’s rights.
Perhaps Mr. Jones and his fellow activists will indeed rise from a stupor and commit themselves to more participation in the law-making process… and help the Constitution to do the job it has always attempted to do.
Because, typically, there are about four people in the BOCC chambers, when new laws are passed.