From: craig@passport.ca (Craig Hubley)
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 95 01:01:59 PDT
To: hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu (Robert A. Hayden)
Subject: Three strikes you're out!  for politicians... yeah we wish!
In-Reply-To: <Pine.ULT.3.91.950721113352.5103A-100000@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
Message-ID: <m0sZZTz-001Bg4C@passport.ca>
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> 
> About two weeks ago, there was some talk in here with regards to holding 
> DC lawmakers crominally liable for passign bad laws.  This was followed 
> up with postins pointing out that you can't do that.

Here's something you *can* do:  

"Three strikes you're out" for politicians.

Any time the Supreme Court strikes down a law, any politician who has been 
found to have voted in favor of three such laws is immediately stripped of
all offices and rendered ineligible to run for public office ever again,
at any level.  (The same might apply to those found to have lied to a court

A politician who would trade citizen rights for political gain must be denied
the benefits of such a tradeoff.  This might prevent the rise of demagogues.
Term limits, etc., would of course help as well.  It would also give those
politicians who vote for 'motherhood' issues like 'protecting kids from the
perverts on the Internet' a good reason to think twice about the real issue.
If they REALLY believe they are protecting someone, they will still vote in
favor.  If they are going with the flow to avoid criticism, they'll lose in
the end.

My reasoning is that any politician whose laws are consistently struck down
should be deemed to lack a fundamental understanding of the rights of the
citizens of his/her country or jurisdiction.  They are thus a poor guardian
of those rights.

You heard it here first.
 
Craig Hubley