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GOP State Rep. Sends Letter To All Clerks: ‘Ignore The Recent SCOTUS Opinion Redefining Marriage’

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A state lawmaker just sent a letter to every county clerk in Tennessee asking them to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage for same-sex couples. 

Tennessee state Rep. Rick Womick one week ago today sent all 95 county clerks a letter – on his House of Representatives, State of Tennessee letterhead, indicating it is an official document from the office of a state lawmaker – asking them to ignore last month’s Supreme Court ruling on marriage for same-sex couples.

“You did not take an oath to uphold an ‘opinion’ from five justices of the SCOTUS. Therefore, I am asking that each of you ignore the recent SCOTUS opinion redefining marriage, uphold our State Constitution, and issue marriage certificates to one man and one woman only,” Womick’s letter, below, reads.

Rep. Womick writes that the state attorney general and governor’s office contacted notified the clerks “to uphold the SCOTUS opinion or face a discrimination lawsuit. Such intimidation from this administration is unconstitutional and should not be tolerated. Each of you are publicly elected servants of your county, held accountable only to the people that elect you.”

Rep. Womick’s legal reasoning is far from sound and should any clerk actually use his letter to defy the law they might run into some legal trouble of their own. Unsurprising, since Womack is an original co-sponsor of Tennessee’s HB 615, “Establishes the Bible as the Official State Book.”

Womick also writes, “the four dissenting justices of the Supreme Court have empowered each of you, making it absolutely clear the unconstitutional actions of the SCOTUS. They have stated that not only did the SCOTUS not have the authority to even hear the Obergefell v. Hodges case, but the court did not possess the power to issue an opinion as to the constitutionality of the law.”

Of course, the minority opinion is just that, an opinion and not legally binding since it’s not the majority opinion. 

Womick, who is a member of Focus on the Family, also falsely states, “two of the five justices, Justices Ginsburg and Kagan, were required by federal statute to recuse themselves from the Obergefell v. Hodges case, because of their violation of federal judicial ethics and their biased conduct in having performed same sex marriage ceremonies.”

The two-page letter, filled with bold-faced and italicized type and exclamation points, rambles on and on, quotes Jefferson, and concludes, “I will stand for our Republic and I will rebel and fight against all who support this oligarchy of judicial tyranny! I hope you will do the same in each of your counties.” 

Chris Sanders with the Tennessee Equality Project tells WRCB that Womick “needs to let it go.”

“There is no chance a county clerk is going to win if this goes to court,” Sanders adds. “They will lose and they will be liable for those legal fees.”

WRCB notes that Womick “has not received a response from any clerks indicating they would ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

 

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BREAKING NEWS

Trump Indictment Is a Massive 34 Counts: CNN

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2 hours ago

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March 30, 2023

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When he appears in New York next week, Donald Trump will face a 34-count indictment.

CNN’s John Miller on-air Thursday evening announced, “I am told by my sources that this is 34 counts of falsification of business records, which is probably a lot of charges involving each document, each thing that was submitted, as a separate count.”

Attorney Tristan Snell, who assisted in the successful prosecution of the Trump University case for the New York Attorney General’s Office, responded via Twitter:

“This is WAY more than expected. If this is correct, it could mean that the indictment covers FAR more than the Stormy Daniels hush money — like Karen McDougal hush money or other hush money/catch-and-kill cases.”

READ MORE: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

“My hunch for a while,” Snell adds, “given [David] Pecker’s involvement and the drawn-out timetable of the indictment, plus the TWENTY interviews of Michael Cohen with the DA, showed that something far larger than Stormy might be in the works.”

“May still be wrong, of course. But 34 counts is a LOT!”

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News

Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

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March 30, 2023

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Donald Trump’s attorneys were notified Thursday afternoon a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict him on felony charges related to his alleged hush money payoff of a porn star he reported slept with.

The ex-president’ attorney recently said if indicted Trump would travel to New York to turn himself in.

The Office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has just issued a strongly-worded statement saying it is “coordinating” with Trump’s attorneys for his “surrender.”

“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,” the statement reads.

READ MORE: ‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery posted the statement to Twitter.

NBC News explains the process, noting he is expected to be arraigned next week.

“After the indictment, Trump will be arrested and taken into custody. He will likely have a mug shot and fingerprints taken,” NBC reports. “Trump will then appear in court to be arraigned, where he will hear charges and enter a plea. Two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that the former president is likely to be arraigned next week. Trump will either be jailed or released while pre-trial hearings take place.”

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'INDICTED FOR HIS BEHAVIOR'

‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

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March 30, 2023

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Just past 5:00 PM ET The New York Times broke the news that Donald Trump, the ex-president, had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on felony charges.

It is a historic moment.

Legal experts are weighing in to help guide Americans through an event that has never before happened in this country.

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman says the fact that this is the first time in U.S. history a president is facing criminal charges is itself a problem.

“I think it would have not been a novel event,” Ackerman said on MSNBC, “if we had done this 49 years ago with Richard Nixon, and he had not been pardoned, this will not be a big event [that] it is today.”

READ MORE: New Poll Sends Trump Damning Message About 2024 if He’s Criminally Indicted

“Everybody should be held accountable,” Ackerman added, citing former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s earlier remarks. Cohen testified repeatedly before the Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump late Thursday afternoon after a three-hour session.

Ackerman lamented that despite over 30 people being indicted during Watergate, “Richard Nixon was pardoned, he wasn’t held accountable.”

“I think this is very important,” Ackerman continued, “establishing a principle, a line in the sand, that even if you’re the President of the United States, and you commit a crime, you can’t stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and just shoot somebody.”

Ackerman was referring to Trump’s infamous comments during the 2016 election, when he bragged he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Attorney and civil rights activist Maya Wiley, also on MSNBC, said, “It’s important and sobering that we had somebody who had the highest office of this country who has now ben indicted for his behavior, his acts, in order to win that office, but also faces what are more shoes that will drop, I believe.”

“It is a sobering moment for this country, that we are witnessing this happened to somebody who was entrusted with such power who has now had a jury of his peers, because that is what a grand jury also is, say we believe he had to face the music.”

READ MORE: Here’s How Five Republicans in Congress Are Responding to the Mass Shooting of 3 Children and 3 Adults in Nashville (Video)

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law, called this a “moment where we would do well to seriously assess who we are as Americans and who we are not as Americans, because we re all so familiar with Donald Trump’s tactics.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

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