Cattaraugus County, NY
Vowing to Protect Rights, NY County Goes Constitutional
Epoch Times, Sept 6, 2021
Lawmakers in a conservative western New York county voted unanimously late last month to become a “constitutional sanctuary” where the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights will be protected. Even the lone Democrat legislator voted in favor of the measure.
Under the legislation, Cattaraugus County declared itself to be a “Constitutional County, unwavering in its commitment to protect the constitutional rights of its citizens.”
As part of that, the county legislature vowed to use “all legal means at its disposal” to oppose unconstitutional efforts to infringe on the rights of citizens, whether those attacks come from the federal or state level. Gun rights in particular received special treatment.
Among other elements, the measure declares that no county employees, public money, resources, or buildings would be used to infringe on the rights of citizens or to help other levels of government enforce such unconstitutional restrictions.
Even the county’s mission statement was updated to pay homage to the Constitution and declare the legislature’s vision of protecting its constituents from “excessive and oppressive” governmental mandates.
“If state or federal government continue to overstep their bounds and intrude into the lives of our citizens with unconstitutional mandates, our legislature will step up and challenge that,” said Cattaraugus County Legislator Ginger Schroder, an attorney in private practice who drafted and pushed the resolution in response to pressure from the community.
In a phone interview with The Epoch Times, Schroder said constituents in her county were fed up with what they view as the increasingly extreme abuses and violations of the Constitution coming from Albany and Washington, D.C.
During the CCP virus pandemic, for example, state lawmakers and even courts “allowed all power to be assumed by an autocrat—and not a benign autocrat,” explained Schroder, referring to recently departed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“It was devastating to our community,” she continued, “and that’s why we decided we simply had to do something about this.”
According to Schroder, the time has come for Americans and their elected officials to resist.
“I’m even willing to engage in civil disobedience,” she declared. “Sometimes you have to stand up to government. That’s what our forefathers did. If there’s an unconstitutional mandate that comes down, I may choose not to comply with that, and I’ve encouraged others to do so as well.”
Protecting Gun Rights and More
In the resolution, all of the county legislators reiterated their intent to protect the enumerated rights of citizens including, but not limited to, “rights to freedom of expression, speech, association, religion, press and petition, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to protection of person and property from government overreach and the right not to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
The act also vows to protect rights not listed in the Constitution, as stipulated in the 9th amendment.
Concerns over escalating infringements on gun rights were a primary motivation behind the measure, multiple legislators from the county told The Epoch Times.
The resolution makes that clear too. “The Cattaraugus County Legislature wishes to express its profound commitment to the rights of all citizens of Cattaraugus County to keep and bear arms and proclaim that it is determined to stand as a Constitutional County that recognizes, respects and upholds Second Amendment rights,” the measure states.
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/vowing-to-protect-rights-ny-county-goes-constitutional_3984174.html