I’ve always said that if demoncraps didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.<\/p>\n
Democrats’ double standard on constitutional amendments<\/a><\/p>\n Ballot measures to impose new gun control laws? Democrats love \u2019em, even when the\u00a0courts question their constitutionality<\/a>. But when\u00a0Republicans<\/em>\u00a0turn to voter referendums and constitutional amendments to strengthen the Second Amendment, as they\u2019re doing in Montana, Democrats declare an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d is at hand.<\/p>\n Thanks to the midterm elections, Republicans in the state now enjoy a supermajority in both legislative chambers as well as the governor\u2019s office. That gives them the numbers (on paper, anyway) to start the ball rolling on amending the state\u2019s constitution, and several lawmakers are already looking at one area they say is in desperate need of reform: the unfettered power given to the state\u2019s Board of Regents in establishing rules and policies governing public colleges and universities in Montana.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Earlier this year the state Supreme Court overturned a law establishing a process by which law-abiding citizens could legally carry a concealed firearm on those campuses, ruling that the state legislature has now power to overturn the prohibition put in place by the regents. Speaking to a local radio station this week, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudson declared that decision\u00a0was so egregiously awful<\/a>\u00a0that it\u2019s no surprise legislators have adopted the strategy of changing the state constitution itself.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen that constitutional carry on campuses fight went to the Montana Supreme Court, that\u2019s literally what the Montana Supreme Court ruled, that that the university system was so powerful that it could suspend the Bill of Rights on the university campuses, and I think that\u2019s incredibly dangerous,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why you\u2019re seeing constitutional initiative bills being dropped in the legislature because you\u2019ve got legislators who are upset about this process.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But the attempt to curb the regents\u2019 power goes\u00a0beyond Second Amendment concerns<\/a>; touching on our individual freedom of speech as well.<\/p>\n Several referendum proposals concern Montana\u2019s Board of Regents or the part of the Constitution that lays out the duties of that body, which oversees the state\u2019s public university system. While declining to specify the language he\u2019ll pursue, Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, said his request is a direct response to recent court rulings striking down GOP-sponsored laws that sought to set policies on college campuses.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what we\u2019re dealing with is language clarifying that the Board of Regents has to respect all portions of the Constitution, it doesn\u2019t get to pick and choose,\u201d Hopkins said of his proposal.<\/p>\n One of his bills from the 2021 session was\u00a0recently struck down<\/a>\u00a0by the courts for attempting to impose policies on \u201cinternal university affairs,\u201d which the Supreme Court\u00a0has said<\/a>\u00a0is an authority given to the Board of Regents by the state constitution. The bill sought to prohibit universities from disciplining students for speech, with some exceptions.<\/p>\n It was among four laws passed by Republicans in 2021 that have been struck down for overstepping the Board of Regents\u2019 authority. Hopkins suggested his referendum could also be crafted to grant the Legislature oversight power of the board.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The\u00a0Missoulian\u00a0<\/em>reports that at least five requests for draft legislation to amend the constitution that specifically concern firearms have been filed by lawmakers, though the specifics of those proposals aren\u2019t yet available. Whatever the final language looks like, it\u2019s clear that the intentions of the state legislature are both to ensure that it has the final say on gun laws throughout the state, and that our constitutionally-protected rights are treated with the fundamental importance that they deserve.<\/p>\n Amusingly, the same party that generally believes constitutions are living, breathing documents that can be changed simply be re-interpreting their text is now trying to argue that allowing voters to amend the state constitution is a terrible idea.<\/p>\n Democrats have painted the GOP supermajority as an existential threat to the state\u2019s guiding document. Republicans have argued that a supermajority doesn\u2019t give them unchecked power over the future of the state constitution. They\u2019re only proposals until the voters decide.<\/p>\n Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers counters that Montana voters have the ability, every 20 years, to vote for a new constitutional convention to draft up a fresh document. So far, they\u2019ve opted to keep it since 1972\u2019s update. And he said it\u2019s \u201cna\u00efve to just label these as options\u201d for voters.<\/p>\n \u201cAny time you put a referendum on the ballot, it has the potential to pass,\u201d Flowers said. \u201cAnd if that referendum passes and we lose fundamental rights and freedoms that are in the Constitution, that\u2019s an incredible loss for the state, in my opinion, and can change the state in dramatic ways.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That can definitely happen, as we\u2019ve seen in Oregon where the deeply-flawed and unconstitutional (in my opinion) Measure 114 was narrowly approved by 50.7% of the voters last month. But when it comes to the gun-related amendments being proposed in Montana, the intent isn\u2019t to strip away fundamental rights and freedoms, but to ensure that they\u2019re protected from government intrusion by\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>body; be in the State or one of its many political subdivisions like the Board of Regents.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also silly to equate a constitutional convention with simply amending the existing document. We the People have the ability to call for an Article V Convention of the States under the U.S. Constitution, but we\u2019ve never actually done so. Instead, we\u2019ve repeatedly amended the Constitution when support for particular measures have been widespread enough that they can achieve the large majorities required to modify our framework of government. Similarly, Montana requires a 2\/3rds vote in both chambers to even bring a proposed amendment to the voters; a substantial burden, but one that can now be met.. at least if Republicans stick together in defense of the right to keep and bear arms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve always said that if demoncraps didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all. Democrats’ double standard on constitutional amendments Ballot measures to impose new gun control laws? Democrats love \u2019em, even when the\u00a0courts question their constitutionality. But when\u00a0Republicans\u00a0turn to voter referendums and constitutional amendments to strengthen the Second Amendment, as they\u2019re … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88616,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88615\/revisions\/88616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}