We did talk about about the NH Attorney General Joseph Foster and his filing an amicus brief supporting Obama’s transgender bathroom policy mandating, from Washington DC, that forces itself on schools here in NH. Defending New Hampshire? Defending local control of schools by local School Boards? Defending innocent children and their privacy?
Er, nope. Once again we see the example of power-greedy centralized-government-or-bust Democrats that are all too willing to cede our power, our responsibility, our American right to self-government to faceless, unelected, and unaccountable bureaucrats that couldn’t care less. Our elected Political Class (and that includes Republicans like Chuck Morse, Jeb Bradley and Jeanne Forrester who implemented Obamacare).
Here’s the UL article with more info and background (emphasis mine, reformatted):
Courts at odds with NH AG over reporting mental illness for gun-buyer background checks
CONCORD — The state Attorney General believes a new provision in the Medicaid expansion law requires New Hampshire to begin reporting the names of dangerously mentally ill people to the FBI gun-buyers background check database, but the state court system disagrees. In a July 22 letter to Attorney General Joseph Foster, Judicial Branch Chief Counsel Howard Zibel writes that the newly enacted law is “not sufficiently clear on its face for the judicial branch to begin the reporting that you request.”
Gee, as we discussed, a decision from the Judiciary that, you know, looks at the actual wording of the Law?
Zibel’s letter comes in the wake of controversy over what the new provision in the Medicaid expansion act really does.
And even the Legislators think that AG Forster has it exactly backwards – and wouldn’t they be the ones to know?
Legislative sponsors say it was never intended to mandate reports of mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NICS.
But once again, an Executive Branch unwilling to hew to the words and the spirit of those actually responsible for the Law and instead are following an ideological jihad to furthering the “fundamental transformation” by forcing a belief (that there are no differences between men and women and that “you don’t need” your privacy). What’s a simple law in the determination of yet another Administrative State overreach and mandate?
Sidenote: the cognitive dissonance is headache inducing. Privacy for women wanting to kill their unborn children but can’t pee in private?
Attorneys for the Disabilities Rights Center of New Hampshire and the state branch of the ACLU also disagreed with Foster’s interpretation of the law in separate letters to Chief Justice Linda Dalianis. “This letter reflects an administrative determination of the judicial branch,” Zibel wrote. “If you disagree with this administrative determination, you are free to bring an action seeking a judicial determination.”
The reporting was supposed to start soon after Foster’s July 8 letter to the judiciary, which cited the Medicaid expansion act and directed the court to begin providing the information to NICS.
Um, last time I knew, the Judiciary was a co-equal branch of Government – where is AG Joseph Forster’s authority to tell the Court system to do ANYTHING? Several answers I could have advised Zibel to use would violate Rule #1 but “Sod off, swampy” would fit. Several hand motions as well.
At the time, Deputy Attorney General Ann Rice said the names of an estimated 300 people could be disclosed annually. New Hampshire has been one of a handful of states — and the only New England state — to not submit identities of dangerously mentally ill people to NICS. Gun rights advocates have staunchly opposed disclosure. The provision to the Medicaid law was submitted by state Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, a gun-rights supporter.
Hoell told the New Hampshire Union Leader at the time of Foster’s letter to the courts that the provision was written to prevent Medicaid patients from being tagged for NICS, and that Foster’s letter misinterprets the law. “They just want to send names to NICS. That’s wrong. We never wanted to treat the disabled that way,” Hoell said.
But then again, what does Maggie “The Red” say about this broaching of the definitive Law?
Gov. Maggie Hassan at the time called the change a common-sense step to prevent dangerous people from purchasing a firearm.
Of course – in the Democrat Socialist world, the intent and outcome should ALWAYS override the intention of actual law. I don’t care what your intentions are but this abrogation of her Executive Branch sense of the Law, and her assenting and support of it, should disqualify her for both her current and future political offices (and Foster as well).
If political “leaders” can simply wave off Laws because they don’t like them, don’t be surprised when we little people start doing the same thing (and Articles 2-A and 10 pretty much give us those Rights).
If Foster’s interpretation of the law had been put into effect, people who have been determined incompetent to stand trial and involuntarily committed, or people found not guilty by reason of insanity, would have been reported to NICS. In a phone interview on Wednesday, Zibel said the next step is up to the attorney general.
“If he wants to press the issue, he’s got to get a judicial determination. The court is the one who interprets the law, and the court doesn’t interpret law based on letters,” he said. The attorney general could seek a declaratory judgment in superior court. “Then the courts can decide what the statute says,” according to Zibel. “The statute is not something you could look at and say, ‘Wow we have to report.’” A bill was submitted in the 2014 Senate session that would have clearly required reporting to NICS in certain mental health cases, but the bill failed.
Deputy Attorney General Ann Rice said, “We are reviewing our options at this point.”
Interpret that last bit as “Screw them, we’ll figure out another way“.
Including just sending the names in anyways.
