Constitutional Crisis

 The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is violating the U.S. Constitution and Texas Constitution by attempting to thwart the Federal efforts to remove barbed wire he directed to be installed at the border with Mexico after a recent Supreme Court Ruling. 

Sadly, a number of other Republican governors are supporting the Texas governor against the ruling of the Supreme Court. 

This is bad!

Where are we as a nation and a society headed if the rule of law is disregarded in America?

An opinion piece in The Washington Post describes the dangerous situation:

In a jaw-dropping statement last week, Abbott echoed the secessionist rhetoric of the Confederacy. He claimed that the federal government“has broken the compact between the United States and the States” and that, therefore, Texas has “the right of self-defense.”

But no state has the right to defy the Supreme Court. Abbott’s unhinged declaration came two days after the court issued a 5-4 decision in the Biden administration’s favor. By law, that ended the months-long standoff between the governor and the president.

Incredibly, however, 25 other Republican governors issued a statement Thursday endorsing not just usurpation of presidential power, but also defiance of the nation’s ultimate authority on the Constitution and our laws. “We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas,” the GOP governors proclaimed.

Article 1, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution is quoted below:

Sec. 1. FREEDOM AND SOVEREIGNTY OF STATE. Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self‑government, unimpaired to all the States. (Feb. 15, 1876.)

I am concerned that the Republican Party is laying the foundation for disregarding the constitutional authority of the Supreme Court. The only way to thwart that is to begin removing, through impeachment, those officials who have taken an oath to support and then choose not to support The Constitution.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL