The-Ave.US

URGENT:  Plz forward this update to everyone on your email list(s) — help us spread this like wildfire.

Monday, July 18th, 2016

To:  Our thousands of supporters throughout the state (cc’d to the media, house & senate members, and Governor)

From:  Tim Eyman, Jack Fagan, & Mike Fagan, Fighting for Taxpayers for 16 years, 425-493-9127, [email protected],www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com

RE:  EVERYONE:  Send email to the 9 judges on state supreme court — If they want to rule the state, then they need to hear from the people of the state

   If, like us, you are angry and disgusted by the arrogance of the 9 judges on the state supreme court, here is your chance — heck, here’s everyone’s chance — to talk to them directly.

Matt Manweller is a constitutional law professor and a GOP member of the state house — his column below is required reading:

There are so many things wrong with the Court’s request

By Matt Manweller

The Washington State Supreme Court issued its latest “McCleary ruling” last Thursday.  In doing so, they continued their tradition of exhibiting a fundamental and disturbing lack of understanding with respect to public policy, taxation and the most simple principles of state governance.

On one level, they simply ordered a hearing for September 7th in which the state is supposed to answer some questions about education funding.  Although reasonable on the surface, they have demanded answers to questions that no one, and I mean NO ONE can answer on September 7th creating an almost Kafkaesque theater of the absurd.

There are so many things wrong with the Court’s request, it’s hard to find a place to start.  But here is a quick attempt.

1)  The Court wants to know and be briefed on the State’s plan to fund their demands.  Well, wouldn’t we all.  But who exactly is to give this report?  According to court procedures this would come from the Attorney General.  The only problem is that the Attorney General has NO IDEA what the state’s plan is to fund the Court’s demands.  You see, the Attorney General is not a member of the Legislature.  He will be briefing the Court with NO KNOWLEDGE of our plans.  Why?  Because the Legislature does not know what its plans are right now.  In fact, the 2017 Legislature DOES NOT EXIST.  The Court may have forgotten, but we have these little things called “elections” in November where the people will be choosing the 2017 Legislature.  Do you know who is going to be elected?  Do you know how they will vote on the education budget?  Well, neither do I and neither does the Attorney General.  So what exactly is he supposed to tell the Court?  The fact that the Court does not know these simple facts about how the state functions is simply embarrassing.

2)  It doesn’t matter what is said in the hearing.  It is not binding on anyone. Whatever plan is offered to the Court in the September hearing (by some guy who isn’t a member of the Legislature) will be subject to a million hurdles and changes.  The plan, in the form of a bill, can be amended in both houses.  It can be vetoed by the Governor.  There can be line-item vetoes by the Governor.  It can FAIL in either body.  But trust me, whatever is “briefed” in September will NOT be the final solution.  Legislation is like making sausage and you don’t know what you are going to get until all the deals are made, the revenue forecast is finalized and final votes are taken.  The briefing in September will have as much legitimacy as a Nigerian prince offering you a million dollar inheritance via email.

3)  The Court seems to believe that the task force, set up under Senate Bill 6195, to study financing options for education is somehow an indicator of legislative intent.  It’s not.  The current task force, created by law last year to look at funding solutions, does NOT speak for the Legislature.  No committee can speak for the body as a whole.  Committees recommend.  The Legislature adopts.  Any first year political science student can tell you this.  You would think that at least one state supreme court justice would have as much political knowledge as an 18 year old.  You would be wrong.

Once again, the Court has reminded citizens that they are not intellectually suited to do their job.  One of my favorite lines from The West Wing is when President Bartlet commented “He has a 22 caliber mind in a 357 world.”  This is an apt description of our state supreme court.  Two years ago, after issuing another erroneous “Order” the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee had to write a blog post instructing the Court to turn the Excel sheet over … they were reading it backwards.  They simply lack the intellectual fire power to grasp complicated policy dilemmas.  But they also fail to understand taxation policy, educational policy, and most surprisingly, legal procedure.

— END —

If these judges want to run the state, then they need to hear from the people of the state.

If you agree with Matt and think these judges have gone completely rogue, then we want everyone — AND WE MEAN EVERYONE — to send them an email and tell them what you think.  You can just cut and paste Matt’s commentary into your email and write “I agree with Matt” at the top.  Or send them an message in your own words.  But send them something right away, right now, today.

Cut and paste their email addresses into the “To” line of your email:

[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected].gov;[email protected]; [email protected]

All 9 judges are demanding $3.5 billion in tax increases.  One of ’em even said in open court that the judges themselves could unilaterally raise taxes even more than that.

Well, if they’re going to take over legislators’ jobs, they need to take over legislators’ responsibility to hear from and listen to the citizens.

Their September 7th “hearing” is an overt attempt to convince the media and the public that they are an all-powerful, not co-equal, branch of government.  They want the lawyers to kiss their rings in public — groveling will be fine too.  It’s also a blatant misuse of public resources to aid the reelection campaigns for incumbents Madsen, Wiggins, and Yu.  All 3 of them will be showboating and mugging for the cameras the whole time (just 4 weeks before ballots are sent out).  Worst of all, they’ve manipulated this whole “show trial” so that their eventual decision (the take-over of tax policy and the legislative process) will only occur after the November election!

Remember in November:

Dave Larson — https://www.larsonforjustice.org/ is challenging incumbent Charles Wiggins (whose top donors are the unions, especially the WEA)

Greg Zempel — https://www.zempelforjustice.org/ is challenging incumbent Barbara Madsen (whose top donors are the unions, especially the WEA)

David DeWolf — https://www.dewolfforjustice.org/ is challenging incumbent Mary Yu (whose top donors are the unions, especially the WEA)

You can count on us to fight against next year’s tax-hiking insanity.  The voters’ passage of our Initiative 1366 last year certainly shows that the people are in no mood for any tax hikes, let alone increases totaling $3.5 billion.