Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Right to Breathe Freely

I am pretty certain that the Right to Breathe Freely is not enumerated in The Constitution of the United States of America.  I bet you couldn't even stretch the overly-stretched-already Commerce clause to include it.  But, the Congress of The United States has something to say about my ease of aspiriations and has placed certain identification requirements around it.


I do not think my right to draw air should be disenfranchised.  But the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act 2005 mandates that I must show my government-issued photo ID in order to purchase a 12-tablet pack of Sudafed.  My personal data must be sent over the airwaves, entered into a database, co-agitated and correlated, investigated and adjudicated, and if I have comported myself as a law-abiding citizen, I am allowed to fork over my eight bucks for my choice of hay-fever relief and again assert my God-given right to Breathe Freely.

One right that is enumerated for me specifically in The Constitution of the United States is the right to freely participate as a citizen in lawfully administered elections.  A citizen is defined in Amendment 14 Section 1, ("All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside"), and the rights enumerated around voting you can see in Amendments 15, 19, 24 and 26.

The State of Georgia I think wanted to make sure that you at least approach a modicum of reasonableness in asserting yourself as a citizen (as defined above) and that you comply with lawful age mandates when you go to cast your ballot at your local precinct.  They did that by requiring that you present some form of government issued ID at the polling station as Step 1 in exercising your right to choose (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-417).

Now for me here in Powder Springs, heck, I went to church with the fellow who was serving as the precinct supervisor last week on Super Tuesday.  He has known me for years, and my Momma and Daddy even longer than that. 

I didn't get a pass.  Comer still wanted to see my photo ID before I was allowed to cast my ballot for my candidate of choice (and to decide if it was OK to buy a six pack of beer at the Kroger on Sundays). 

President Obama's Department of Justice is holding that (in Texas, anyway), requiring you to present a piece of government-issued ID disenfranchises your rights as a voter in a lawful election.  General Holder's argument is that upwards of some 300,000 citizens of Hispanic descent don't have an ID, can't get an ID, and if they could, it would cost them too much money and place too much hardship uponst their ability to exercise their enumerated rights at the ballot box. 

I am not of Hispanic lineage.  Maybe that is why I didn't give it a second thought before I got into my car on Super Tuesday to go vote ("Dang, maybe I'll just stay home...I'll have to pull my driver’s license out of my wallet and everything after I get there").  Maybe Hispanic or other legal citizens of non-Caucasian descent think along those lines.  Maybe President Obama's Department of Justice is privy to certain cultural thought patterns that are unknown to the Great Unwashed. 

Surely there is some great nugget of Federal governmental wisdom at the bottom of it all.  It certainly could not have the aroma of "politics" in a highly-charged political year, where stories come out almost daily, from Brietbart.com to The Powder Springs Weekly Digest, of blatant voter fraud.

"In with the Good, Out with the Bad" inherent in Breathing Freely mirrors itself in the act of lawful citizens voting in lawful elections.  Here just north of the gnat line, I need an ID to do both and I’m OK with that. 

1 comment:

  1. Don't even get me started on Holder the Hun.

    Here's something that should pique the interest of you and your legal-eagle son:

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/03/thursday-poolmageddon-trial-lawyers/367846

    ReplyDelete