I’m Charles Larson, candidate for Utah Legislature, House District 60, challenging our incumbent Brad Daw for his seat. This week my campaign sent a direct mailing to each of you, but several delegates have informed me that it had not yet arrived with today’s mail delivery. The County Nominating Convention is tomorrow morning and I very much wanted you to have this information available to you going in, so I am emailing it to everyone just to be sure.
WE EITHER HAVE A CONSTITUTION – OR WE DON’T
Have you ever wondered why no Utah lawmaker has ever proposed a bill prohibiting the legislature from passing a law that undermines the authority of the United States Constitution?
The answer is simple: They don’t need to. The Utah State Constitution, Article I, Section 3, which reads: “The State of Utah is an inseparable part of the Federal Union and the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land,”already does that. Or at least it’s supposed to.
How, then, was Rep Brad Daw (R), 6-term incumbent from House District 60, able to propose HB195 and HB197 during the 2018 legislative session – bills which would defy federal law, violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause, and have Utah authorize limited use of medical marijuana?
Was it out of Brad’s compassion for the suffering of the terminally ill? Perhaps, or we at least would like to think so. But even while sponsoring his bills (and defending them to his constituents since) Brad made it known that they were primarily intended as a “preemptive” measure to head off other pending actions – such as the ballot initiative filed by The Utah Patient’s Coalition – a group which advocates for far broader use of medical marijuana with significantly less restrictions than Daw’s bills proposed.
In other words, HB195 and HB197 were designed to be a less undesirablealternative that might prevent a more undesirablepossibility. As he described them in a committee hearing, their limited scope would be merely like dipping a “very small toe in the water” rather than plunging in headfirst. No big deal, really. Only a token nod to keep the more radical elements at bay.
But the problem is – and always had been – that by federal law cannabis is still 100% illegalin everystate, includingUtah.
Did that fact seem to bother Brad Daw? Apparently not. When taking into account that some 30 states thus far have illegally “legalized” marijuana for medical or recreational use (or both), Brad Daw simply pointed out that Congress hasn’t allocated funding to prosecute cultivation, distribution and use in those states.
So, since prosecution “isn’t funded” that’s supposed to mean it’s acceptable to defy federal law and the Constitution? We can only guess that maybe Brad thought (or wished) that Barack Obama was still the President, or Eric Holder was still in charge of the Department of Justice, but thankfully that is no longer the case. There is a new wind blowing from Washington D.C these days which all Republicans ought to be thankful to get in front of, but which Brad Daw seems unable to do.
Utahns don’t require any dubious “preemptive” laws to protect us. That would be like parents telling their teenage sons or daughters that is all right for them to be a “little bit” immoral – provided they weren’t “completely” immoral. The Utah State Legislature should have enough faith in our Governor to expect that he would veto any legislation or initiative that would have us violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause, or enough confidence in the Utah Supreme Court to know that any such proposal would be struck down as unconstitutional.
All states – Utah included – derive their rights from the Constitution. When one starts to break up the Constitution, what then becomes of the rights of the states, and of the people?
Charles Larson
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