The Montgomery Advertiser takes issue with some rule-breaking that has been going on in the Alabama legislature. As has been widely reported, the Alabama House of Representatives saw an incident a couple weeks ago where some lawmakers were voting other representatives’ voting machines against their wishes. This caused the grocery tax bill to pass even though it probably wouldn’t have if the vote were legit. Also, Lt. Governor Jim Folsom again “gaveled” through some procedural action to end a deadlock in the senate, violating the state constitution.
Even those who support the outcomes in these two situations should recognize that such heavy-handed tactics should have no place in a body that is supposed to epitomize the rule of law.
Here’s the problem as I see it. All rules are made up. I tend to follow the rules and all that because it makes things run smooth and sensibly. So I stop at red lights and I don’t touch things that say “Danger High Voltage” on them. But in the end, they’re all artificial constraints meant to help a system.
But we all know what happens when rules don’t accomplish their objective or when they become destructive to that objective — they’re often ignored. I’m sure I break rules every day. People responsibly use marijuana because it doesn’t hurt anything or because it helps with an illness. The other day I ignored a sign and turned left at 1 AM because there was no traffic and it was much more convenient. How many times have you broken some rules and felt completely justified in doing so?
The Senate rules and relevant sections of the constitution were meant to ensure a smooth session and to allow all of the citizens’ representatives to have a voice in the legislative process. They were instead making it so that an expensive special session would have had to been called to pass the state’s operating budgets. Is it really a surprise that Folsom would and Senate leaders would break the rules?
I don’t address Randy Hinshaw’s method of voting other member’s machines because it wasn’t justified. I’m also not trying to justify Jim Folsom’s actions. But if things are as dysfunctional as they have been, I really don’t see why people are surprised by the resolution — ignore the rules that have been allowing the dysfunction. Really, I’m not advocating that elected official break the constitution. I’m just not surprised by it.
