43) The New Battle for Civil Rights in Los Alamos

It is said that freedom is never free -- it must be fought for and re-newed by every generation.

The book, "The Battle for Civil Rights - How Los Alamos Became a County" by Marjorie Bell Chambers describes the first battle for civil rights under the US Constitution for the residents of Los Alamos.  The culmination of that battle was the Municipal Building which stood for Constitutional Rights and The Charter which embodies those Rights.  The Municipal Building has been flattened and now The Charter is under assault.

Yet, there is hope.  It will be some time before the Court hears the merits of the Chandler action.  The Chandler action is based on a single case : a NM State Supreme Court ruling in Johnson v. City of Alamogordo.  I was fully aware of the Johnson ruling before circulating the petition, and, indeed, I did some editing of the petition in light of the Johnson ruling.  I do not believe that the Johnson ruling applies to the Muni petition -- I will discuss that later.

The Johnson ruling needs to either be clarified or overturned.  That can only happen in appellate Court, and it may well require Federal Appellate Court for this is a case which goes to the US Constitution 1st Ammendment right of Petition.  The question is this:  if the State District Court, relying solely on Johnson, over-turns the Petition Will the County Appeal?

Will Council -- and the next Council of Berting, Chiravalle, Hall, Rodgers, Selvage, Stover and Wismer -- take this to the mat in defense of our basic Liberties? Will they stand and defend?  Will they, in a second Battle for Civil Rights, preserve and restore everything that was won in the first Battle?

And what if they don't? What will citizens do?  Will they finally get out the legal equivilent of the torches and pitchforks?

This is no longer about a construction project.  But then again -- it never was.