Voters recall town trustee who balked at Pledge

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Habecker is a 12-year member of the Estes Park governing board. The mountain community, located about 60 miles northwest of Denver, has about 5,500 residents.

The campaign to recall Habecker and his failed effort to block the election with a lawsuit have turned his personal values into fodder for public debate.

The scrutiny started in May, when the board began reciting the pledge after Trustee Lori Jeffrey-Clark suggested it would show respect for the country during wartime.

Habecker was caught off guard but rose and recited the pledge, omitting the phrase "under God," according to his lawsuit. He became uncomfortable after several meetings and decided to remain seated.

Habecker, who describes himself as a free thinker, has said he is patriotic and doesn't oppose the pledge's meaning. However, he said the phrase "under God" violates his religious beliefs and is at odds with the separation of church and state, according to the lawsuit he filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3099063

[ixion]

1. ah yes, another member of the 'reality-based' community outed

by the witch hunting fundies.

Xian soldiers marching on. :-(

[Deep13]

2. Plainly unconstitutional

The Constitution plainly prohibits any religious test for office. Apparently these patriots doen't give a damn about what matters most in America.

[DearAbby]

3. I live here just outside of Denver...I hope he sues that town!!!

Sue the State!!!

[seriousstan]

9. Clearly constitutional....Eighteen states permit the recall of state

Eighteen states permit the recall of state officials:

Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Kansas
Louisiana
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
Nevada
New Jersey
North Dakota
Oregon
Rhode Island
Washington
Wisconsin


Specific grounds for recall are required in only seven states: Colorado isn't one of them.

ALL state officials in Colorado can be recalled if you can get the signatures of 25% of the votes cast in the last election for the official being recalled in the allotted 60 day circulation time.

Colorado - Const. Art. 21, §1; Colo. Rev. Stat. §1-12-101 - 1-12-122, 23-17-120.5, 31-4-501 - 31-4-505


On edit....I forgot this......
U.S. Constitution
Bill of Rights
Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people

[Deep13]

10. Fed. Constitution trumps state law.

The Tenth Amendment does not apply because the prohibition against religious tests for office is part of the U.S. Constitution and specifically applies to the states. The mechanism of a religious test is irrelevant. Whether done by voters or by statute, it is still action under state law. If the reason for the removal is religion, it is a Constitutional violation.

[seriousstan]

11. Specific grounds for recall are required in only seven states

There need be no reason given for the recall. You and everyone are free to assume a reason, but one doesn't have to be stated in the recall papers.

[Deep13]

14. Question of fact

Courts are permitted to ascertain real reasons for state action even if they are not expressed openly. At any rate, even if there is no judicial remedy, it does not mean the state action is Constitutional.

[rinsd]

16. I would think the mechanism itself would be relevant.....

....otherwise why would we have conversations such as whether a Roman Catholic could be President (prior to JFK) or the discussing of whether Lieberman as a Jew could be elected as VP or the fact that many Bush voters do so because like themselves he is a born again Christian.

[Deep13]

12. Art.VI, Cl.3

See also, Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), 367 U.S. 488, applying the prohibition of a religious test to state offices based on First & Fourteenth Amendments.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Oh goodie, the theocracy is here! Always thought the pledge was

voluntary. I have a new one:

I pledge allegiance to the fascist states of America, and to the corporations for which it stands, one nation under debt, completely divisible, with liberty and justice for those who can pay.

[BiggJawn]

5. Isn't that the home of Estes Rockets?

Man, I sure helped THEIR local economy when I was a kid.

Sorry to see that the town's 60% Mouthbreathers...

Somebody please exhume Senator McCarthy and drive a stake through him...

[UpInArms]

6. gosh - with such clear thinking

this entire country can be overrun with people that do things like this in the name of religion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1334962

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1537512,00.html

“There were dozens of them, armed with guns, and they poured into the park,” Ali al-Azawi, 21, the engineering student who had organised the gathering in Basra, said.“They started shouting at us that we were immoral, that we were meeting boys and girls together and playing music and that this was against Islam.“They began shooting in the air and people screamed. Then, with one order, they began beating us with their sticks and rifle butts.” Two students were said to have been killed.

Standing over them as the blows rained down was the man who gave the order, dressed in dark clerical garb and wearing a black turban. Ali recognised him immediately as a follower of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric. Ali realised then that the armed men were members of Hojatoleslam al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army, a private militia that fought American forces last year and is now enforcing its own firebrand version of Islam.

not that I necessarily believe the article's veracity, but the visual of "religious" nuts in this country beating people up and "shunning" them for not be "religious" enough for their litmus tests doesn't stretch my imagination much.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. I think you can believe the article --

everthing I've read has described al-Sadr as a thug and zealot who had no following to speak of until his militia started fighting the occupation forces. His is now a thug and zealot with considerable power. He would like to be able to challenge al-Sistani as clerical leader of the Shi'ite.

And it can happen here.

[Journeyman]

8. I pledged allegiance to the nation and the Constitution. . .

when I was inducted into the military in the early '70s. I haven't repeated the pledge since, and I've no intention of ever repeating it. I'm of the opinion that if you pledge allegiance once -- and truly mean it -- there's no need to ever pledge again. To do so, in my opinion, reduces the pledge to nothing more than a doctrine of continual reaffirmation, a rote recitation that renders it meaningless.

[malestripper4u]

13. Journeyman

That statement really made me stop and think. Thanks for posting.

---MS

[rogue_bandit]

15. Pledge in 1958

I took my first pledge in 1958, I think. Then there was no mention of "under god".

In the fifth grade I was almost failed because I had to recite and print the pledge in a test. I failed the test because I couldn't get the "under god" part into my memory....I learn a thing once, say it several hundred times and then they want to change it on me. They tried, and succeeded, in shaming me. I will never forgive them for that.

Now I am a city councilmember. The Mayor leads us in the pledge before every council session. I skip the "undger god" part if I can remember to because that is not the pledge I took first. I would complain, as the man in the article apparently did, but I need to have what little power I do have to make progress on the more essential issues like housing the unhoused, feeding the unfeed, protecting the unprotected, employing the unemployed, educating the uneducated, encouraging public participation, etc.