From your State Senate: with Sen. Jennifer Fielder

With so much discussion about the Constitution lately I thought it timely to mention a few related topics being debated in our Montana legislature.

Who should pay when State Constitutional Rights are violated?

Last week we heard SB 274, a bill brought forward by a Democrat Senator that would force the state to pay court costs and attorney’s fees when a government entity is found guilty of violating certain Constitutional rights. Payment of those costs would come from our state general fund. While I fully support the Constitutional rights of citizens, I do not like the idea of making all the taxpayers of Montana pay for a wrong they did not commit.

So I asked the sponsoring Senator if he could alter his bill to make the responsible public employee pay the fee, or at least take it out of the specific agency’s budget. He excitedly rattled off a host of reasons why he thought not, including that we legislators could then be subject to paying the penalty! Who would want to serve in public office if they could be held accountable in this way? My answer: Only those who take their oath of office seriously. And that would be a good thing.

What are your Constitutional Rights?

The Montana and U.S. Constitutions emphasize the rights of the people. Within months of ratifying the U.S. Constitution, our nation’s founders began drafting amendments to clarify their intentions. It took nearly two years to hammer out the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, now commonly known as the Bill of Rights. But it was well worth the effort because this section of the Constitution specifically acknowledges the most fundamental rights of the people. The Preamble to the Bill of Rights includes this explanation for why they wrote it:

“THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”

Among other things the Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of press; the right of the people to keep and bear arms; the right of the accused to a public and impartial jury trial; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. And it also says, “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.”

It was the great American patriot Patrick Henry who said, “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.” As part of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights became the supreme law of our nation. I introduced legislation to educate the public about the Bill of Rights and post it in public buildings. The full text of the Constitution and Bill of Rights can be found online at www.archives.gov

The Oath of Office:

State elected officials are required to take an Oath to support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Montana, and to discharge the duties of office with fidelity.

In order to uphold that oath I sometimes have to vote in ways I prefer not to. We cannot pick and choose which parts of the Constitution we agree with. Unfortunately many do, and that is the root of much conflict in our country today.