Nation of Law

Four Washington state counties announced they will not enforce Initiative 1639, and more may follow. I don’t understand. I was taught in high school civics class we are a federal, constitutional democracy.

I remembered the words but didn’t quite remember what they mean, so I looked them up in the dictionary. The “democracy” part means we have the right to vote. In a pure democracy, citizens vote on everything. Any time there is a question, the people gather at the meeting place and vote on the issue. We have both too many people and too many issues to do that, so our founding fathers designed a representative democracy.

It works pretty well. The “constitutional” part means we are a nation of law. Our government is not people, judges, nor administrators, it is the law. The “federal” part means the subordinate governments are subject to the laws of higher governments. Thus Washington state is subject to the laws of the federal government. Cities and counties are subject to the laws of the state, etcetera. We tried it another way during the infancy of our nation but it didn’t work, so our founding fathers had a big meeting and drafted the supreme law of our land, the Constitution of the United States of America.

When I was sworn in to the United States Army many years ago, I promised to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. All members of our military still take the exact same oath. So, too, do the President, members of Congress, and the judges presiding in our federal courts. Most of us who took the oath consider it a solemn, lifelong promise. Abraham Lincoln thought so. He kept his promise through the bloodiest conflict in our country’s history. Four years of civil war that cost a half million lives sorely tested our Constitution. In the end, however, it remained intact. States were not allowed to rebel.

The enactment of Washington State Initiative 502 in 2012 set a dangerous precedent. Legalization of marijuana didn’t bother me much. I was more concerned that prohibition of recreational drugs wasn’t working. I was shocked, however, when the administrators of our government allowed states to rebel and threaten our federal system.

Precedents are powerful. They open the door to unforeseen consequences. Obamacare set a precedent when the government mandated citizens purchase commercial health insurance. I don’t think they anticipated FEMA would use that precedent to force landowners to buy flood insurance. The precedent set when states were allowed to disregard national drug laws also had far reaching ramifications. If subordinate governments could ignore federal drug laws, they could logically ignore other laws as well. Cities across the nation decided they could ignore federal immigration laws and declare themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. Washington State officials actually celebrated when cities rebelled against the federal laws.

Will they be as understanding when counties rebel against state laws? We have county sheriffs deciding what state laws they will and will not enforce. Some of these same county sheriffs have assumed the court’s authority to determine what laws do and do not comply with our State Constitution. We have local school districts openly ignoring state limits on school levies. If counties can rebel, why not local school districts? If local school districts, why not you and me?

I voted against I-1639. I think it is a dumb law. If eighteen-year-olds are mature enough to vote, they should be granted the same rights as all other citizens, but that is an argument for another time. When we deviate from our federal system, we weaken the Constitution. If subordinate governments are allowed to openly violate state and federal laws, we have no law. If we have no law, we have no nation.

(Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and a long time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free lance columnist for more than 18 years.)