Constitutional Conservatives, or Rebellious Renegades?
By Rick Dalton
The question that makes up the title for this article was posed to me by a good friend after he posted a New Yorker article about CSPOA and the "constitutional sheriffs movement" as the author termed it. The title of that article was The Renegade Sheriffs. The question is a reasonable one, and because it was posed directly to me by my friend, it deserves a detailed answer.
The answer begins with a recitation of several of the many many acts of protecting rights by CSPOA members and others who have sworn the sacred oath.
1. Was the Utah Sheriff's Association a group of rebellious renegades when they said, in a letter to Obama that they would refuse to enforce unconstitutional gun laws? About 340 elected sheriffs around the nation sent letters or voiced their stance in upholding their oaths to defend the Constitution.
Here's a news story about it.
"Calling the Second Amendment a sacred right of citizens to protect themselves from "tyrannical subjugation," the association state elected sheriffs said in a new letter, "we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation."
2. Was Sheriff's Deputy Stan Lenic a renegade or an oathkeeper, when he defended citizens exercising their free speech rights at the Albany, NY airport against an airport manager who didn't like what they were saying and wanted them removed
?
3. Was Sheriff Brad Rogers, of Elkhart County, Indiana (where, just today, President Trump held a campaign style rally to a huge crowd) a renegade when he threatened to arrest federal agents who were harassing an Amish farmer, without probable cause, over federal agriculture regulations for selling raw milk to his neighbors? By the way, I have dozens of these stories of the legal doctrine of "interposition".
4. Was Sheriff Richard Mack, the founder of CSPOA, a renegade when he took the Clinton Administration to court over an unconstitutional federal regulatory scheme, the Brady Bill? Was the Supreme Court of the United States a bunch of renegades when they ruled in Sheriff Mack's favor?
5. Was Federal District Judge John Roll a renegade when he ruled in favor of Sheriff Mack, saying the Federal government cannot commandeer a state or local official to enforce or assist in enforcing a federal regulatory scheme? The ruling said that the
Sheriffs were forced to chose between obeying the unconstitutional law or violating their oaths to the Constitution.
States O4.16(1)
State legislatures are not subject to federal
direction.
6. Was Nye County, Nevada Commissioner Dick Carver a renegade when he used a bulldozer to open a county road that had been closed by federal agents, thus keeping citizens from enjoying the beauty of the land in their county? And what about the hundreds of American Citizens who were there supporting him? Here's a news story from back in the nineties:
"With a couple of hundred supporters cheering him on, some of them wearing sidearms, Nye County Commissioner Dick Carver clambered aboard a bulldozer and punched open a long-closed road in Jefferson Canyon in the Toiyabe National Forest. Keeping just clear of the advancing bulldozer's blade, a hapless special agent with the U.S. Forest Service backed up the canyon holding a sign informing Carver that his holiday road-building was not authorized on federal land."
7. Was the federal judge Navarro a renegade when she dismissed the charges against the Bundy Family and other defendants, who had been held in prison for two years without being charged with any crime? She stated that the egregious and criminal acts of the federal government, including the BLM and others, had violated the rights of the defendants. That's a Constitutional conservative
8. What about the several juries who acquitted the defendants in several cases involving the Bundys and others? These juries were chosen as representative examples of average citizens to serve on the jury. In voting for acquittal, they were defending the Constitutional rights of the defendants. Are they renegades?
"Thank God for the Renegades", by Steve Vaus.
Lyrics:
From Nazareth he came, with a rag-tag band
To bring a revolution.
Some would make him king, others couldn't stand the man.
The Cross was their solution.
But he rose again, wise men follow him.
But he rose again, wise men follow him.
Thank God for the renegades and the lives they lead
Far ahead of their time
Without the renegades lord know where we'd be
When it comes to heroes, renegades are mine.
They railed against the crown
Another rag-tag band, declaring independence
Laid their bodies down, on a bloody war
and liberty for their descendants.
Thanks to the renegades, we're free today.
Thanks to the renegades, we're free today.
Thank God for the renegades and the lives they lead
Far ahead of their time
Without the renegades lord know where we'd be
When it comes to heroes, the renegades are mine.
