UPDATE: I guess the hearing has been called off, and Taylor is NO LONGER banned. Still waiting to hear more details. I wonder if our AG stopped eating cookies for a couple of minutes and read the constitution instead.
Pat called into the B-N-B show this morning (towards end) and expresses his feelings on the issue;
“I’m concerned as a taxpayer,” Starr told The Greg Belfrage Show this morning. “It’s a great group for the municipalities to come together across the state. This just distracts from the organization that does this for us.”
Starr said it, unfortunately, the parties have had to go to federal court to determine for what he calls “a personality conflict.”
“I think you expect professional decorum on both sides,” Starr said. “I’m disappointed.”
But he said he needed to back Taylor, as she has free speech rights and works for “his” organization.
“To ban someone indefinitely is overreaching and probably one of the reasons she used to for the terminology,” Starr said.
I think both Taylor and Haugaard were out of line, they should just make up and move on. But instead, it’s going to cost taxpayers coming and going;
So, win, lose, or draw, South Dakota taxpayers will be paying indirectly for the two sides’ attorneys.
If we had an AG’s office with at least a half a brain that actually understood the Constitution, they would have sent a polite letter to Haugaard telling him his actions were unconstitutional and that he had no right to ban Taylor. Then send a letter to Taylor telling her she was no longer banned. Pretty simple. The postage may have cost the taxpayers a couple of bucks, but problem solved. So now we have two publicly funded institutions fighting it out in Federal court over a clear violation of 1st Amendment rights. Not only is it ‘Whacky’ it’s down right stupid. I think our state house is not only full of ‘Whackies’ but it also is full of the mentally challenged, mentally ill and just down right ignorant. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Steve.
End result; litigation and municipal government is more confused. What’s lacking is public service. Local government has become a popularity litigation expose. Fine, but don’t spend public money.
What has happened here is that someone who should not have been allowed to control any piece of any level of government has vastly exceeded his authority. A wise man told me long ago that the surest way to reveal a fool is to give him power.