This article by Mitch Perry appeared in the Florida Phoenix, July 17, 2018.
Brief commentary by Community Rights US media team member Curt Hubatch: One of the components of the Community Right’s strategy is to exercise our inalienable right to local, community self-government in the places we live and want to protect. Over 200 communities across the United States have exercised this right and successfully passed Community Rights ordinances. We think one of the best ways (perhaps the most effective way at these latter stages of the corporate takeover of our governing systems) to challenge state preemption is to exercise our inalienable right to local, community self-government. We believe this right should be recognized in our local, state and federal constitutions. Our hope is you the reader will recognize in this article the illegitimate and unjust ways state preemption is being implemented. Then learn how you can best support and help build the Community Rights movement now afoot in the Untied States.
After the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in South Florida, the mayors of twenty Florida cities filed a legal challenge to a state firearm law. The controversial law allows the state to impose a $5,000 fine on any local official that dares to pass local gun regulations.
The firearm law is an example of a growing problem for local governments – the Republican-led Legislature keeps attacking “home rule,” the right of municipalities to pass laws that suit individual communities.
Critics of the state’s heavy-handed approach say that Republicans in the state Legislature are spitting on the grave of founding father Thomas Jefferson, who said that “the government closest to the people, serves the people best.” MORE…