For some reason, rightwing supporters of “states rights” and “state sovereignty” have been noticeably silent about federal judicial interference with a dictatorial gun-control decree that was issued by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. What’s up with this rightwing silence?
In the finest tradition of totalitarian dictatorship, Grisham declared an “emergency” in New Mexico, which she then used as the excuse for issuing a dictatorial order banning guns in public places.
No, she did not go to the legislature to get a law enacted that implemented her gun-control scheme. Instead, she just issued an “emergency” edict that implemented her gun-control scheme.
Why, even Hitler, after citing the Reichstag Fire as his emergency, went to the German Parliament to seek legislative approval for his dictatorial powers. That’s what the Enabling Act was all about. Grisham’s position obviously is: Unlike Hitler, I don’t need no stinking legislature to enact my dictatorial decrees.
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Fortunately, we have the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the states from depriving people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. Also fortunate is the fact that the Supreme Court has held that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, including gun rights protected by the Second Amendment.
Thus, a federal judge named Kea Riggs, enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment, put the quietus to Grisham’s dictatorial action by enjoining the enforcement of her dictatorial gun-control decree.
But interestingly enough, from what I can tell, not one single rightwing supporter of “states rights” and “state sovereignty” has come to Grisham’s defense and criticized and condemned Federal Judge Riggs for interfering with Grisham’s dictatorial gun-control decree.
Why this rightwing silence on what is clearly a federal violation of the concept of “states rights and “state sovereignty”?
After all, rightwing proponents of “states rights” and “state sovereignty” are going ballistic over a federal judicial ruling in Texas enjoining Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott from placing concertina wire in the Rio Grande in order to deter immigrants from illegally entering the United States and from taking other police-state measures to prevent an “invasion” of Texas by unarmed, penniless, defenseless immigrants.
So, if right-wingers are going to cry “states rights” and “state sovereignty” in Texas, why are they not doing the same in New Mexico? It seems perfectly inconsistent to me and perhaps even a bit hypocritical.