Judge scolds Democrats for damaging democracy by refusing to allow properly appointed Republicans on board
A judge has scolded Democrats in Fulton County, Georgia, for creating a new definition of “shall” to include that when lawmakers used that word in a law, they really meant that something should happen, or could happen, but only if the politics line up with a leftist agenda.
The fight was over the appointment of two Republican-nominated individuals to be on the county board of elections.
The law says that Democrats shall nominate two candidates, Republicans two and the county a fifth.
However, Democrats on the board of county commissioners decided they didn’t like the opinions of the two Republicans nominated, so they were going to ignore the law and they told the GOP to come up with other names, names of individuals that the Democrats would like.
David Emerson, Fulton County Courts judge, demolished their ideology.
“The court … notes that the appointment statute contains no provision to support the respondents’ position that it should have the power to veto any given nominee and force the county chairperson to submit other nominees. There is nothing in the statute to support the BOC theory that the county commissioners can veto the chairperson’s nominees other than for failure of the nominee to meet the two qualifications and one restriction (be a county resident, be an elector, and cannot be a holder of elected office).
“The court finds that the ‘shall’ as used here is mandatory, and the BOC does not have discretion to disapprove an otherwise qualified nominee. The court grants the petitioner’s request for a writ of mandamus directing the BOC to comply with the statute: The board shall appoint the two members as nominated by the county executive committee chairperson. Those nominees are Jason Frazier and Julie Adams.”
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley, who has testified as an expert on the Constitution before Congress and even represented members in court, said it was a loss for Democrats who now “have lost their effort to block two Republican commissioners from sitting on Fulton County’s Board of Elections because of their political views.”
He said significant was “not just the raw partisanship but the utter lack of legal authority of Democrats to refuse to recognize the duly selected GOP members.”
The candidates to be put on the board now are Jason Frazier and Julie Adams.
One of the radicals opposing the Democratic process through which nominees are selected, Commissioner Marvin Arrington, had claimed, “I think the Republican party ought to take a look at their people and not nominate people that are on the far right and nominate people that are in the center.”
Turley noted that, “While self-proclaimed defenders of democracy often seem to have no qualms about curtailing democratic choices from ballot cleansing to jurisdiction flight, this is particularly raw and outrageous. There is no law supporting this action and the state law is clear on the need to seat the GOP commissioners.”
He said the board has two members appointed by the Democrat party, two named by the GOP, and a chief named by the Fulton commissioners.
The fight has resulted in the judge’s decision that “crushed” the Democrats.
Emerson concluded Fulton County Commission did “not have the discretion to disapprove an otherwise qualified nominee.”
The fight was over, Turley noted, the commissioners’ demand to be allowed to “bar members based on their political views.”
The Democrats, the judge pointed out, were claiming, “the ‘shall’ is not mandatory, but rather ‘directory,’ and that the county commissioners can exercise discretion to reject any nominee for any reason.” The party members, in fact, were doing something that “harms the election process and deprives the nominating party of representation … .”