Hold Walker, Van Hollen To Their "Defend The Constitution" Pledge

Friday's Federal court ruling that overturned Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marrriage was a wonderful day across the state for justice and equal rights.
The day was so good that you could even spot a silver lining in the reflexive, reactionary appeal of the ruling immediately announced by Republican Governor Scott Walker and GOP Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen, as they hoped to restore anti-gay discrimination to the Wisconsin Constitution.

The Wisconsin State Journal characterized the GOP officials' appeal this way

A spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Scott Walker said, “It is correct for the attorney general, on this or any other issue, to defend the constitution of the state of Wisconsin, especially in a case where the people voted to amend it."

Here's the important part of the spokeswoman's comment - - and it's not that bit about backing up people who for the marriage ban, because the court ruling affirmed that, in America, we don't put people's rights to a vote:

"it is correct for the attorney general, on this or any other issue, to defend the constitution of the state of Wisconsin..."

That's important because there's another section of the Wisconsin Constitution under assault right now by Walker & Co. on behalf of special interests, so let's hold these officials to their principle and have them get busy defending Article IX of the Wisconsin Constitution, The Public Trust Doctrine, which declares that the waters of the state belong to all the people of the state.

Subsequent rulings and interpretations even direct the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to defend the Doctrine by intervening on behalf of the public in situations where water rights and access are threatened - - as the DNR itself explains in detail on its web site.

Walker and Van Hollen should be defending the state constitution and the public interest against surface and groundwater appropriation, pollution or overuse by the proposed open-pit iron mine in Northwest Wisconsin, various mega-dairies and corporate farms, frac sand mines, and other giveaways of the public's water.

Walker and Van Hollen ignored the state constitution's protection of voting rights through their Voter ID laws and other fresh restrictions on absentee voting.

Who better now to make amends for their earlier constitutional failings by now defending Wisconsinites' constitutionally-protected water rights in Article IX than our newly-minted state constitutionalists, Scott Walker and J. B. Van Hollen? 

Back to basics to reclaim historic Wisconsin values.