Justice is dead in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Judge Thomas Connolly just dismissed a bid by the MassGOP to stop the swearing-in of newly-appointed “senator” Paul Kirk. It kind of blows my mind how many evil things happened in the past couple of days. First, both houses of the state legislature passed the senator-appointment bill, and Deval Patrick signed it. Then he asked for an “emergency” to be declared and Secretary of State William Galvin agreed. Now, Paul Kirk has been appointed “senator” and he is set to be sworn in in Washington D.C. at 3:15.
The MassGOP filed an injunction against Patrick last night, and I attended the hearing on it this morning. I will share my observations, with my opinions in italics.
I arrived in courtroom 1006 in Suffolk Superior Court a little before 8, when the hearing was scheduled, but it did not start until about 9. Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks represented Governor Patrick, while Attorney James P. O’Brien and Chairman Jennifer Nassour represented the GOP.
Both sides gave brief arguments for their points of view. O’Brien first listed the facts of the case. He pointed out that the legislature, although they passed the hypocrisy bill (my term, not his), did not have the two-thirds majority required for an emergency preamble making the bill take effect immediately instead of in 90 days. He also noted that according to the State Constitution, emergency bills must be subject to a referendum. This bill was not, since the deadline for referendums is August 5.
By declaring an emergency anyway, Patrick ”establishes a dangerous precedent” and causes “irreparable harm” to the people of Massachusetts, O’Brien argued. “The job of the governor is to protect the Constitution, not to circumvent it.”
Connolly was skeptical of O’Brien’s claim that Kirk’s appointment would cause “irreparable harm.” He incredulously asked if the harm was that we would have a senator sitting. That would be harmful to the few people in this state who actually believe in liberty, especially if Kirk’s appointment enables Obama’s health socialism bill to pass, but I digress. O’Brien responded, sensibly, that it would set a harmful precedent for the governor to “maneuver and utilize the Constitution in an inappropriate manner.”
Then Sacks argued his side. He said that the emergency succession bill is subject to a referendum, with a deadline of 30 days after the bill was filed. The deadline that the GOP used, according to Sacks, is the deadline for initiative petitions. He argued that the GOP had not shown that the public interest would be helped by granting their injunction and that the GOP’s motion was moot because Kirk has already been appointed. “I don’t feel that anyone is being deprived of any rights by this appointment,” he said. Really? Just to name one, if the health socialism bill passes because of “Senator” Kirk’s vote, that would deprive people of the right to choose whether or not they want health insurance.
Connolly repeated that the GOP must show that the appointment would cause irreparable harm. O’Brien replied that if the injunction is needed to preserve the law (which it is), proof of irreparable harm is not needed. Sacks insisted that the injunction would not serve the public interest (it sure would if liberty is in the public interest), and therefore shouldn’t be passed even if it is needed to protect the law.
Connolly took the motion under advisement and considered it for about four hours before making his (in my opinion wrong) decision.
I got the impression from this hearing that Connolly is probably a Democrat and never seriously considered the GOP injunction. The injunction should have been granted for a simple reason: there is no emergency. Because there is no emergency, Patrick should have no right to declare an emergency. No one is in danger if Massachusetts has only one Senator. No one will die because of it. It’s one thing for people to have different opinions, but how can the Democrats deny obvious facts? It simply isn’t an emergency, and I don’t see how a rational, thinking being could believe that it is.
This kind of tyranny is exactly what the Constitution of the United States was designed to prevent. The separation of powers is supposed to ensure that no one faction gains complete power and that the majority does not take away the rights of minorities. In Massachusetts, however, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches – all dominated by Democrats – demonstrated today that they are in cahoots, ganging up to take away the people’s liberty and oppress the minority who disagree with their views.
Call me immature, but whenever I refer to Kirk from now on, I will put the word “senator” in quotes. Paul Kirk is not my senator. He was appointed illegitimately and illegally.
