Voter rights

From: Paul [mailto:pnally1@att.net]
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 1:09 PM
To: 'mpotter@naacpldf.org'
Cc: 'askdoj@usdoj.gov'
Subject: Please forward

 
NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
99 Hudson Street, Suite 1600
New York, NY 10013

November 11, 2012

 Dear Mr. Adegbile,

Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder just came to my attention this morning.  I doubt that this information will be of much use in that case; however, I believe that I must share it with you.

It is my understanding that the State of Georgia was released from further notifications to the Department of Justice some years ago.  It was a premature decision.

Ga. Const., Art. VIII, sec. V, par. II was amended in 1991 and supposedly ended the practice of local boards of education of appointing board members with the language “ … until December 31, 1993, on which date the terms of office of all appointed members shall end.”  For whatever reason, the Ga. Legislature has not repealed or amended O.C.G.A. 20-2-54.1.  But, in 2003, Ga. L 2003, p. 3705 was enacted which provided for the election by popular vote of all board members under every circumstance.

Earlier this year a board member resigned, and the remaining members of the Board of Education for Bartow County, Georgia selected and appointed a replacement member based on the advice of the System Attorney that they could so appoint.  This advice was in clear contravention of the present law.  After repeated pleas of multiple citizens for the board and the election Superintendent to correct its action, two members of the Bartow County Tea Party initiated a Quo Warranto action in Superior Court of Bartow County.  The judge in that case permitted the case to go forward but failed/refused to issue an appropriate order to have the proceedings comply with the statutory 10 day decision rule contained in O.C.G.A. 9-6-64.  The result was that the primary election was held on July 31 and the appointed board member was listed on the ballot as the “incumbent” and she had an opponent.  This, of course, placed the stamp of the State of Georgia upon her as the State having approved her appointment in contravention of the clear mandate of law.  Plaintiffs in the underlying Quo Warranto then had no choice but to move for dismissal for mootness.

Subsequently, pursuant to the requirement of 18 USC 4 a federal criminal complaint was filed against the System Attorney, among others, for violations of protectable voting rights.  The US District Judge, Harold Murphy, reached into the Federal Magistrate’s office, removed that case, took jurisdiction over it, and issued his order which among other things denied sending the matter to a Federal Grand Jury for its independent investigation holding that a citizen has no right to initiate a federal prosecution; yet he failed to explain that holding in the context of a citizen’s right to petition and be heard by those vested with the power of government for a redress.  That case number is 4:12-CV-169 and can be found on Pacer.

The citizens of this State, black, white, oriental, etc., no longer have a right to the courts, the right to petition a grand jury, or the right to responsibly exercise speech or be heard, either in their voice or their evidence, and certainly have NO reasonable expectation of impartial or detached jurist when they do go to court.  This is no bald allegation; these are the rulings of the Georgia Supreme Court.

In spite of the advanced years from the founding of this Nation, we, the people, are seemingly still too ignorant to govern ourselves.  This is primarily due to the level of an “adequate” education that is proffered in our State Constitution as the level of primary focus of our State.  It seems the definition of “adequate” is that level of ignorance, or indifference to ignorance, which is socially acceptable to the political and social elite.  In that group, I do not now exclude the black portion of our society, since, of all people, they are the ones who inherited the real promise of this Nation’s birth, and it is they to whom we should look for leadership at the forefront of Dr. King’s dream.  Yet, virtually all of my black childhood sharecropper friends have gone on to obtain a level of economic affluence far beyond that of which their parents could have hoped, but not a word is heard from them in this County.

I suppose that silence can be understood when they hear the story of deputies storming into an otherwise unused courtroom before court was to be convened where some citizens had assembled to be selected and sworn in as grand jurors and they were being asked to hear another citizen’s evidence of official organized corruption in their County.  Then the armed deputies grabbed the petitioner, drug and shoved him into a holding cell at the back of the courthouse for several minutes and then retrieve him and literally threw him out the front door of the courthouse on the orders of the senior judge and their sheriff.

Perhaps, I am in error in thinking that it is the continual duty of ALL citizens to look to our right to vote, our right to petition and be heard in our evidence in an effort to protect ourselves from the encroachment of abuses fostered and protected by black robed thieves and goose-stepping, brown-shirt, badge-wearing, gun-toting, little Hitlers who hesitate not one minute to physically throw out of a courthouse any citizen who seeks only to peaceably assemble and petition for a redress of their grievances as happens here in Cartersville, Georgia.  Perhaps, too, I am in error in thinking that we owe a duty to our neighbors to look to these things on their behalf. 

Regardless, ineffective as the 1965 voting rights act is in some cases, it is not time to scrap any part of it.  I cannot speak to the constitutionality of the challenged portion to be heard before the Supreme Court, but federal supervision is a long way from being unnecessary, and a preclearance request to the US Justice Department would have prevented the complete disenfranchisement of all the voters in Board District 5.  Should it be struck, perhaps Congress will rewrite it for compliance.

It would help, also, if the President would “take care that the laws are faithfully executed”, especially down here in the most judicially corrupt area of this Country where our Governor refuses to do so and especially since Sally Yates takes no interest in such affairs and turns a deaf ear to the petitions of citizens of this County in such matters and does not discipline her employees when they commit embracery (intimidation) upon federal grand jurors.

At any rate, I hope this personal testimony helps the effort.

Sincerely,

Paul L. Nally
Former judge
827th Militia District
770-386-1171

Cc:    Erick Holder

          Civil Rights Division, US Dept. of Justice