Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

HT: Jim Shella

WTHR-TV reports on the resignation of Mark Frisbie (R), the Putnam County Sheriff. Apparently there was a Federal investigation into the Sheriff’s office and as a result of said investigation the Sheriff resigned, according to the Putnam County GOP Chairman. I’ll hand it to their Chairman, he seemed rather forthcoming on the situation and not playing the media spin game.

The now former sheriff would not comment on his resignation.

Now closer to home how about resignations from a couple City-County Councilors?

Representative Terry Goodin (D-Crothersville) authored a bill—that ended up passing the Democrat controlled House, the Republican controlled Senate, and was signed into law by the Republican Governor. This law required that stores that planned to sell sexually explicit materials to pay a $250 fee and register with the Secretary of State saying what types of materials that they planned on selling. The expressed reason for this law was to help localities with zoning issues.

Well, this law died an ignominious death by being declared unconstitutional (regarding the first amendment) by U.S. District Court Justice Barker.

The post-mortem after the jump.

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It seems the Moonbats never give up. After being given their rebuke 6-3 by SCOTUS, the League of Women Voters, led by former City-County Council member Karen Horseman are filing suit in STATE court disputing the constitutionality of the State Voter ID Law. The article in the Ryerson Rag is HERE.

Haven’t we already been down this road? Sounds like defining the meaning of “is”. Luckily we have a strong attorney general in place in Steve Carter and his Deputy AG Greg Zoeller to make sure challenges like are put down quickly.

*Promoted to the top by Josh*

Late last week, a number of blogs (notably Frugal Hoosiers and Wilmette) began to draw attention to the unusual actions of the Obama campaign with regard to the “free” concert that it arranged for Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds to put on in Bloomington on Sunday, April 6.

The Obama campaign was giving out “free” tickets to this concert to anyone that came by their offices (with registering to vote and encouraging the attendees to vote for Barack Obama tending to factor into this picture).

Your humble correspondent has not blogged about this until now, as I was in the process of researching the issue as much as possible in preparation for filing a letter of complaint with the Indiana Election Commission in my capacity as an Indiana voter who is impacted by what the Obama campaign has done, and as Chairman of the Harrison County GOP.

That letter, the text of which follows below, should be reaching the IEC this morning.
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While the federal government has done a good job of bungling immigration reform, they are not the only governmental body to feel the pressure created by our illegal alien woes. Local governments and state governments across the country have had to live with the consequences of our federal government’s ineptitude and inaction on this issue.

If State Senator Mike Delph(R) has his way, however, before this session is over Indiana will have some tougher laws for dealing with illegal immigrants. Sen. Delph, like many people supportive of immigration reform, is not against immigration. Instead, Sen. Delph and the senators who have joined him by co-sponsoring SB 335are interested in seeing the rule of law restored. They want to make sure that Hoosiers are not required to pay for the care of those who are here illegally or face a criminal threat from an individual who has broken the law in entering our country.

The fundamental principle of our government is that we are a nation of laws and that no individual or entity is above the law and no individual or entity is below the law. The selective enforcement of the law must stop and if the federal government is unable to act then Indiana should do everything within its power to prevent its citizens from having to bear the financial, economic, and security burden imposed by the presence of illegal aliens.

On January 16th the Senate Pension and Labor Committee, chaired by Sen. Dennis Kruse (R) one of the bill’s co-sponsors, held a hearing on the immigration reform bill. To read the legislative summary of the bill go here.

Briefly, the bill empowers properly trained members of the state police to enforce federal customs and immigration law, provides for the prosecution and penalization of employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, prevents any governing body within the state from refusing to cooperate with any other government entity that is seek to determine the status of a suspected illegal alien, provides for the cancellation of state contracts with employers who employ illegal aliens, and establishes penalties for hiding or transporting illegal aliens.

Senator Delph and the co-sponsors of SB 335 should be lauded for their efforts to restore the rule of law in Indiana with regard to immigration and employment.

To view a list of the bill’s supporters go here and to drop a line to your senator urging him or her to support SB 335 go here.

Hypocrisy has become par for the course when it comes to attacks on Indiana’s voter ID law, as Abdul has noted by the refusal of Democrats to be concerned when one of their own disenfranchised 3,100 voters in last year’s primary election in Indianapolis.

Advance Indiana has read the transcript of yesterday’s oral arguments, and seems to think that the law’s opponents fell flat in their arguments before the Supreme Court.

I think that the exceedingly skeptical questioning of Justice Anthony Kennedy (the deciding vote in almost all of the cases from the rather divided court) toward the law’s opponents should give some indication of where the highest court in the land will eventually come down.

Most amusing of all, however, when it comes to hypocrisy over the voter ID law is this story, which has been cited variously at Instapundit (heh) and Daily Pundit (bwahahahaha!).

On the eve of a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Indiana Voter ID law has become a story with a twist: One of the individuals used by opponents to the law as an example of how the law hurts older Hoosiers is registered to vote in two states.

Faye Buis-Ewing, 72, who has been telling the media she is a 50-year resident of Indiana, at one point in the past few years also claimed two states as her primary residence and received a homestead exemption on her property taxes in both states.

Monday night from her Florida home, Ewing said she and her husband Kenneth “winter in Florida and summer in Indiana.” She admitted to registering to vote in both states, but stressed that she¹s never voted in Florida. She also has a Florida driver’s license, but when she tried to use it as her photo ID in the Indiana elections in November 2006, poll workers wouldn’t accept it.

Subsequently, Ewing became a sort-of poster child for the opposition when the Indiana League of Women Voters (ILWV) told media that the problems Ewing had voting that day shows why the high court should strike it down.

But Indiana Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita said Monday that Ewing’s tale illustrates exactly why Indiana needs the law. “This shows that the Indiana ID law worked here, which also calls into question why the critics are so vehemently against this law, especially with persons like this, who may not have a legal right to vote in this election,” Rokita said.

Mrs. Ewing, the article goes on to note, registered to vote in both states (and got a driver’s license from Florida, no less) in order to be able to claim homestead exemptions on her property taxes in both Indiana and in Florida.

Oh, the irony.

Oh, the hypocrisy.

Par for the course from the Indiana Democratic Party and its allies, I suppose.

A ruling was issued today in the case which questioned whether officers retained their sworn status and arresting powers when IPD & the Marion County Sheriff’s Department merged.

The Indiana Supreme Court’s Opinion can be found here.

The Indiana Supreme Court today overturned a Marion County judge’s dismissal of a woman’s drunken-driving case because the arresting officer had not been not sworn in after last year’s police merger.

The 5-0 decision says officers of the Indianapolis Police Department and Marion County Sheriff’s Department retained their sworn status and arrest powers when the two agencies were consolidated on Jan. 1, 2007.

Marion Superior Court Judge Reuben Hill had taken the defendant’s side in an Aug. 7 ruling, invalidating the arrest of Cheryl Oddi-Smith by the new Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and putting at risk thousands of other criminal cases. The Supreme Court took the Indiana attorney general’s appeal on an expedited basis, hearing arguments Nov. 14 in Indianapolis.

“We think it sufficient grounds to say that the arresting officer was recruited, trained, and sworn as an IPD officer and that he took all that with him to the IMPD,” concludes the 5-0 decision, written by Chief Justice Randall Shepard.

Source: IndyStar