Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Strange bedfellows

The Supreme Court is ruling on its authority to abrogate a local law.
Mary Anne — (archived)

Whether it's fair to the little guy is the sentimental issue, but it's not the legal issue. When looked at from the point of view of the person whose property is seized, it's never fair. The plaintiffs asked for a legal opinion as a solution to their problems. When you ask for a legal opinion, you're asking for a juristictional decision. A juristictional decision is exactly what these plaintiffs got. If they had wanted a decision on fairness, they should have gone to the people.

The Supreme Court has ruled that it has no authority to nullify this law. The municipal government has decided what the law means. The State of Connecticut has no law that forbids the municipality's interpretation. If the people of Connecticut want to forbid any government taking outright, they can actually do that. The Supreme Court has pointed this out, deliberately. Maybe it's time to look at the issue that way.

I haven't seen the entire history of this case, and the events leading up to it. I wonder if the people involved went to any of the hearings. I wonder if they talked to the municipal government. I wonder if they contacted their state representatives. I wonder if they canvassed their community. I wonder if they wrote to the newspapers. I wonder if they did anything more strenuous than hire a lawyer.

In the several communities in which I have lived, there have been burning issues, some of them more serious than others. Honest lawyers -- and there are many -- will advise people who ask them that a legislative remedy to civil issues is always more desireable than a judicial one, because it focuses the community's attention on the problem and applies a systemic solution to it rather than merely applying a bandaid. But it's difficult. One has to attend public meetings and take notes. One has to get together with other people who are also concerned and see how to cover these meetings, because time is precious. One has to help organize and run community roundtables and Q&A sessions, and to publicize them, in order to heighten public awareness. One has to speak, in public, in some form. One has to contact experts willing to give their time and arrange for places where they can speak, or help in other ways.

Outrage is not enough, and hiring a lawyer is not enough. If it's important, you put in the time, and you put in your own money. If you don't have the money, you beg for it or sell cupcakes to raise it. If it's not important enough for that, you pay in other ways. It's a hard lesson, but that, too, is a measure of fairness.

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