Republicans have hit rock bottom
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An Okla. lawmaker told police they couldn’t arrest him. They did anyway.
Oklahoma state Rep. Dean Davis (R) insisted that officers didn’t have the power to arrest him outside an Oklahoma City bar just after 2 a.m. Thursday. Arguing with a police sergeant, Davis pointed to a section of the state constitution that renders lawmakers “privileged from arrest during the session of the Legislature.”
“You can’t detain me,” he said in body-camera footage released to The Washington Post by the Oklahoma City Police Department.
“I can, and I am right now,” Sgt. Timothy Brewer told him.
Davis, 50, was charged with public drunkenness, a misdemeanor. That afternoon, while on the floor of the House of Representatives at the state Capitol, Davis insisted he had done nothing wrong while nevertheless apologizing to fellow lawmakers for “creating this unnecessary distraction from the important work of the House.”
Davis didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) addressed the incident Friday at his weekly news conference.
“People sometimes make poor choices and … they need to be held accountable,” he said, according to KFOR. “So don’t know any specifics about that. But, you know, we’re going to be a law-and-order state in Oklahoma, and we hold ourselves to higher standards, especially as public officials.”
Brewer and Lt. Jeff Cooper were driving to a police station around 2:10 a.m. to wrap up their shift when they spotted people hanging out at a bar called Skinny Slim’s, according to an incident report written by Brewer. Because it is illegal for people to drink on the patio after 2, Brewer and Cooper approached the group and told them to leave.
Three men, including Davis, did not obey, Brewer said in his report.
Instead, Davis allegedly started arguing with the officers. Police asked him twice more to put down his drink and leave or go to jail, Brewer wrote. Although he eventually set down the drink, Davis then told police something to the effect of “you don’t know how bad you messed up [but] you will find out tomorrow,” the report states.
Brewer told him to put his hands behind his back, according to the report, as Davis repeatedly told one of the other men in the group, “Are you getting this?”
Brewer handcuffed Davis and marched him to a police cruiser, where he eventually guided Davis to the back seat. Once there, Davis told Brewer to pull out a card from his wallet, which police had confiscated.
“Read the back of that card,” Davis said. “Read what the state law says.”
The sergeant did. On the card was a version of the Oklahoma Constitution’s Article V, Section 22: “Senators and Representatives shall, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session of the Legislature, and in going to and returning from the same, and, for any speech or debate in either House, shall not be questioned in any other place.”
Because the first day of the legislative session was Feb. 6, Davis argued that officers were prohibited from arresting him. That was not Brewer’s interpretation. After reading the card aloud, he told Davis that because he wasn’t at the Capitol actively engaged in his role as lawmaker at that moment, the section didn’t apply.
Oklahoma state Rep. Dean Davis (R) insisted that officers didn’t have the power to arrest him outside an Oklahoma City bar just after 2 a.m. Thursday. Arguing with a police sergeant, Davis pointed to a section of the state constitution that renders lawmakers “privileged from arrest during the session of the Legislature.”
“You can’t detain me,” he said in body-camera footage released to The Washington Post by the Oklahoma City Police Department.
“I can, and I am right now,” Sgt. Timothy Brewer told him.
Davis, 50, was charged with public drunkenness, a misdemeanor. That afternoon, while on the floor of the House of Representatives at the state Capitol, Davis insisted he had done nothing wrong while nevertheless apologizing to fellow lawmakers for “creating this unnecessary distraction from the important work of the House.”
Davis didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) addressed the incident Friday at his weekly news conference.
“People sometimes make poor choices and … they need to be held accountable,” he said, according to KFOR. “So don’t know any specifics about that. But, you know, we’re going to be a law-and-order state in Oklahoma, and we hold ourselves to higher standards, especially as public officials.”
Brewer and Lt. Jeff Cooper were driving to a police station around 2:10 a.m. to wrap up their shift when they spotted people hanging out at a bar called Skinny Slim’s, according to an incident report written by Brewer. Because it is illegal for people to drink on the patio after 2, Brewer and Cooper approached the group and told them to leave.
Three men, including Davis, did not obey, Brewer said in his report.
Instead, Davis allegedly started arguing with the officers. Police asked him twice more to put down his drink and leave or go to jail, Brewer wrote. Although he eventually set down the drink, Davis then told police something to the effect of “you don’t know how bad you messed up [but] you will find out tomorrow,” the report states.
Brewer told him to put his hands behind his back, according to the report, as Davis repeatedly told one of the other men in the group, “Are you getting this?”
Brewer handcuffed Davis and marched him to a police cruiser, where he eventually guided Davis to the back seat. Once there, Davis told Brewer to pull out a card from his wallet, which police had confiscated.
“Read the back of that card,” Davis said. “Read what the state law says.”
The sergeant did. On the card was a version of the Oklahoma Constitution’s Article V, Section 22: “Senators and Representatives shall, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session of the Legislature, and in going to and returning from the same, and, for any speech or debate in either House, shall not be questioned in any other place.”
Because the first day of the legislative session was Feb. 6, Davis argued that officers were prohibited from arresting him. That was not Brewer’s interpretation. After reading the card aloud, he told Davis that because he wasn’t at the Capitol actively engaged in his role as lawmaker at that moment, the section didn’t apply.
Bus Driver
Bacon Quality Control Specialist
Not unlike what some of the GQP are trying to enshrine in Federal law to protect their Dear Leader.
Jim Jordan doesn’t understand his job
MAGA Republicans, devoid of policy solutions and addicted to performance politics, act as if their House majority invests them with the power to rove the landscape to spot MAGA victims, skewer their enemies and defend their political allies. That’s not their job, and, as we are seeing with their attempt to intimidate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his investigation of defeated former president Donald Trump, it’s a gross abuse of congressional power.
For starters, Congress has no business meddling with any ongoing investigation at any level. In response to an outrageous letter from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanding Bragg testify about a case under consideration by a New York grand jury concerning New York law, Bragg’s office wrote, “Consistent with these constitutional obligations, the DA’s Office is cognizant of the Justice Department’s consistence policy ‘of not providing Congress with non-public information about investigations.’ "
Bragg’s office made the constitutional case succinctly:
Congress is not a supercharged prosecutorial supervisor. In our system of separation of powers, the duty to investigate and prosecute rests with the executive branch, either at the state or federal level. Attempts to politicize prosecutions and turn prosecutors into lackeys of right-wing legislatures represent a dangerous trend that strikes at the heart of the impartial administration of justice and the rule of law.
But it’s not only Congress that is seeking to abuse prosecutorial independence.
In Florida, for example, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) removed Hillsborough County prosecutor Andrew Warren for, among other reasons, decrying abortion restrictions and bans on gender-affirming care. (Warren won on the merits but was denied reinstatement in federal court on 11th Amendment grounds; he has appealed to the Florida state Supreme Court and to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.)
Following DeSantis’s lead, Georgia lawmakers proposed a law that would allow a body they largely control to fire locally elected prosecutors. As the Center for Constitutional Litigation’s Robert Peck wrote in a Bloomberg Law post, “The new law would render blanket statements about a prosecutor’s unwillingness to prosecute certain crimes to be a form of misconduct. A primary concern of the bill’s proponents is opposition to criminal prosecutions under Georgia’s so-called fetal heartbeat law that restricts abortions to approximately six weeks.” Again, this attempted legislative infringement on the executive branch violates the separation of powers and tramples on the right of voters to select district attorneys who adopt the priorities they think are important.
Just as Georgia prosecutors and Florida prosecutors have every right to prioritize cases the voters want prosecuted (e.g., violent crime), Bragg and the people who elected him can choose to pursue public corruption and other white-collar crime free from interference from lawmakers.
Jordan’s attempted power grab not only violates the separation of legislative and executive power, but also runs roughshod over the 10th Amendment, which Republicans invoke at the drop of the hat to shield states from federal regulation and interferences. Jordan’s letter is a blatant violation of New York sovereignty (and the interests of Manhattan voters who elected Bragg).
The reply from Bragg’s office to Jordan’s letter aptly made this point. “The Letter’s requests are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty. Congress’s investigative jurisdiction is derived from and limited by its power to legislate concerning federal matters. … The Constitution limits Congress’s powers to those specifically enumerated; and the Tenth Amendment ensures that any unenumerated powers are reserved to the States.” Moreover, Bragg’s office argued, “To preserve the Constitution’s federalist principles, the District Attorney is duty bound by his constitutional oath to New York’s sovereign interest in the exercise of police powers reserved to the States under the Tenth Amendment.”
If Bragg oversteps his authority, New York courts and juries will protect the interest of defendants, be they the former president or not. And if his priorities don’t address the concerns of the voters who sent him there, they can vote him out.
Would there ever be a time to bring a local prosecutor into testify under oath to Congress? Certainly, but not on a pending matter and not on an issue of state law.
Congress first would need a valid legislative purpose. In Trump v. Mazars USA, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Congress had a “valid legislative purpose” in demanding tax documents from Trump’s accountants:
Valid legislative purposes for a hearing at which local prosecutors might testify could include, for example, amendment of federal voting rights laws (e.g., testifying about threats to voters and poll workers), police reform (e.g., testifying about police abuse in their jurisdiction) and revision of drug laws or funding of anti-addiction programs (e.g., testifying to the strain on courts posed by nonviolent drug abusers). In other words, local prosecutors can assist Congress as fact finders and experts in policy matters over which Congress has jurisdiction.
If a local prosecutor arrests President Biden after leaving office for spurious reasons? If a U.S. attorney indicts Hunter Biden without probable cause? Congress would have no authority to investigate, haul the prosecutors into a hearing room and demand answers. Those matters would get resolved by other branches and levels of government.
It doesn’t matter if Jordan and his cohorts actually believe Bragg is abusing his office. It doesn’t matter if Bragg actually were using poor judgment in exercise of his prosecutorial discretion. It is not Congress’s job to “fix” these things. Congress is confined to its limited constitutional role. That, too, is what we call the “rule of law.”
MAGA Republicans, devoid of policy solutions and addicted to performance politics, act as if their House majority invests them with the power to rove the landscape to spot MAGA victims, skewer their enemies and defend their political allies. That’s not their job, and, as we are seeing with their attempt to intimidate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his investigation of defeated former president Donald Trump, it’s a gross abuse of congressional power.
For starters, Congress has no business meddling with any ongoing investigation at any level. In response to an outrageous letter from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanding Bragg testify about a case under consideration by a New York grand jury concerning New York law, Bragg’s office wrote, “Consistent with these constitutional obligations, the DA’s Office is cognizant of the Justice Department’s consistence policy ‘of not providing Congress with non-public information about investigations.’ "
Bragg’s office made the constitutional case succinctly:
Congress is not a supercharged prosecutorial supervisor. In our system of separation of powers, the duty to investigate and prosecute rests with the executive branch, either at the state or federal level. Attempts to politicize prosecutions and turn prosecutors into lackeys of right-wing legislatures represent a dangerous trend that strikes at the heart of the impartial administration of justice and the rule of law.
But it’s not only Congress that is seeking to abuse prosecutorial independence.
In Florida, for example, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) removed Hillsborough County prosecutor Andrew Warren for, among other reasons, decrying abortion restrictions and bans on gender-affirming care. (Warren won on the merits but was denied reinstatement in federal court on 11th Amendment grounds; he has appealed to the Florida state Supreme Court and to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.)
Following DeSantis’s lead, Georgia lawmakers proposed a law that would allow a body they largely control to fire locally elected prosecutors. As the Center for Constitutional Litigation’s Robert Peck wrote in a Bloomberg Law post, “The new law would render blanket statements about a prosecutor’s unwillingness to prosecute certain crimes to be a form of misconduct. A primary concern of the bill’s proponents is opposition to criminal prosecutions under Georgia’s so-called fetal heartbeat law that restricts abortions to approximately six weeks.” Again, this attempted legislative infringement on the executive branch violates the separation of powers and tramples on the right of voters to select district attorneys who adopt the priorities they think are important.
Just as Georgia prosecutors and Florida prosecutors have every right to prioritize cases the voters want prosecuted (e.g., violent crime), Bragg and the people who elected him can choose to pursue public corruption and other white-collar crime free from interference from lawmakers.
Jordan’s attempted power grab not only violates the separation of legislative and executive power, but also runs roughshod over the 10th Amendment, which Republicans invoke at the drop of the hat to shield states from federal regulation and interferences. Jordan’s letter is a blatant violation of New York sovereignty (and the interests of Manhattan voters who elected Bragg).
The reply from Bragg’s office to Jordan’s letter aptly made this point. “The Letter’s requests are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty. Congress’s investigative jurisdiction is derived from and limited by its power to legislate concerning federal matters. … The Constitution limits Congress’s powers to those specifically enumerated; and the Tenth Amendment ensures that any unenumerated powers are reserved to the States.” Moreover, Bragg’s office argued, “To preserve the Constitution’s federalist principles, the District Attorney is duty bound by his constitutional oath to New York’s sovereign interest in the exercise of police powers reserved to the States under the Tenth Amendment.”
If Bragg oversteps his authority, New York courts and juries will protect the interest of defendants, be they the former president or not. And if his priorities don’t address the concerns of the voters who sent him there, they can vote him out.
Would there ever be a time to bring a local prosecutor into testify under oath to Congress? Certainly, but not on a pending matter and not on an issue of state law.
Congress first would need a valid legislative purpose. In Trump v. Mazars USA, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Congress had a “valid legislative purpose” in demanding tax documents from Trump’s accountants:
Valid legislative purposes for a hearing at which local prosecutors might testify could include, for example, amendment of federal voting rights laws (e.g., testifying about threats to voters and poll workers), police reform (e.g., testifying about police abuse in their jurisdiction) and revision of drug laws or funding of anti-addiction programs (e.g., testifying to the strain on courts posed by nonviolent drug abusers). In other words, local prosecutors can assist Congress as fact finders and experts in policy matters over which Congress has jurisdiction.
If a local prosecutor arrests President Biden after leaving office for spurious reasons? If a U.S. attorney indicts Hunter Biden without probable cause? Congress would have no authority to investigate, haul the prosecutors into a hearing room and demand answers. Those matters would get resolved by other branches and levels of government.
It doesn’t matter if Jordan and his cohorts actually believe Bragg is abusing his office. It doesn’t matter if Bragg actually were using poor judgment in exercise of his prosecutorial discretion. It is not Congress’s job to “fix” these things. Congress is confined to its limited constitutional role. That, too, is what we call the “rule of law.”
Bus Driver
Bacon Quality Control Specialist
As far as many in office are concerned, the scope of their job is what they can get away with.
Mike G
Super Anarchist
They want to act like they're providing a service, and when they get denied it fuels the "what are they hiding??!?" narratives. Trumpers gobble that up.
The above are all examples of muddying the relationship between legislative and legal branches of government. I would consider that a characteristic of a developing-nation: lawmakers seeming to think they can freely interfere with the legal system.
The separation of these branches is essential to good governance.
The separation of these branches is essential to good governance.
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
Public drunkenness constitutes a breach of the peace doesn't it?
Resisting arrest, also.
This story is a tragic tale of Republican politicians literally killing their constituents.
www.nytimes.com
Rural hospitals are struggling all over the nation because of population declines, soaring labor costs and a long-term shift toward outpatient care. But those problems have been magnified by a political choice in Mississippi and nine other states, all with Republican-controlled legislatures.
They have spurned the federal government’s offer to shoulder almost all the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor. And that has heaped added costs on hospitals because they cannot legally turn away patients, insured or not.
Expanding Medicaid would uncork a spigot of about $1.35 billion a year in federal funds to hospitals and health care providers, according to a 2021 report by the office of the state economist.
And it would guarantee medical coverage to some 100,000 uninsured adults making less than $20,120 a year in a state whose death rates are at or near the nation’s highest for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and pneumonia. Infant mortality is also sky-high, and the Delta has the nation’s highest rate of foot and leg amputations because of diabetes or hypertension.
Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, and key G.O.P. state lawmakers argue that a bigger Mississippi program is not in taxpayers’ best interest. The governor says the state’s $3.9 billion surplus would be best used to help eliminate Mississippi’s income tax.
Nine years after states began expanding Medicaid, evidence is growing that broader coverage saves lives. In a 2021 analysis, researchers for the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that in one four-year period, 19,200 more adults aged 55 to 64 survived because of expanded coverage, and nearly 16,000 more would have lived if that coverage was nationwide.
‘We’re Going Away’: A State’s Choice to Forgo Medicaid Funds Is Killing Hospitals
Mississippi is one of 10 states, all with Republican-led legislatures, that continue to reject federal funding to expand health insurance for the poor, intensifying financial pressure on hospitals.
Rural hospitals are struggling all over the nation because of population declines, soaring labor costs and a long-term shift toward outpatient care. But those problems have been magnified by a political choice in Mississippi and nine other states, all with Republican-controlled legislatures.
They have spurned the federal government’s offer to shoulder almost all the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor. And that has heaped added costs on hospitals because they cannot legally turn away patients, insured or not.
Expanding Medicaid would uncork a spigot of about $1.35 billion a year in federal funds to hospitals and health care providers, according to a 2021 report by the office of the state economist.
And it would guarantee medical coverage to some 100,000 uninsured adults making less than $20,120 a year in a state whose death rates are at or near the nation’s highest for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and pneumonia. Infant mortality is also sky-high, and the Delta has the nation’s highest rate of foot and leg amputations because of diabetes or hypertension.
Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, and key G.O.P. state lawmakers argue that a bigger Mississippi program is not in taxpayers’ best interest. The governor says the state’s $3.9 billion surplus would be best used to help eliminate Mississippi’s income tax.
Nine years after states began expanding Medicaid, evidence is growing that broader coverage saves lives. In a 2021 analysis, researchers for the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that in one four-year period, 19,200 more adults aged 55 to 64 survived because of expanded coverage, and nearly 16,000 more would have lived if that coverage was nationwide.
MR.CLEAN
Moderator
- Moderator
- #3,357
Every disaster or epidemic will produce the same results. This is what happens when you elect people for the quantity of bullshit they spew and the kind of pin they wear on their lapels rather than their track record and competence. As sad as it is, it's also the solution to the problem.
phillysailor
Super Anarchist
- 9,683
- 4,431
Only if you make the mistake of forgetting their motives.
Saving rural rednecks & impoverished black voters is not in the best interests of the average GOP politician.
They are seeking the financial backing of moneyed billionaires and corporate political donations.
This is achieved by reducing taxes and eliminating regulations.
COVID should have made it clear that the GOP is not advocating for safe and effective medical care.
jerseyguy
Super Anarchist
Got a new bottom.
www.stripes.com
Republican senator blocks military promotions over abortion policy as Austin warns of ‘ripple effect’
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama refused to release his hold on the Senate’s consideration of military promotions Tuesday even as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned senators a continued holdup would have a “ripple effect” across the armed forces.
I just came here to post this. Stupid motherfucker is letting his religion dictate US military response.Got a new bottom.
Republican senator blocks military promotions over abortion policy as Austin warns of ‘ripple effect’
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama refused to release his hold on the Senate’s consideration of military promotions Tuesday even as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned senators a continued holdup would have a “ripple effect” across the armed forces.
