This is not an opinion piece about Tommy Tuberville’s residency situation.
Truly, it’s not. By now, you’re likely aware of my position on that matter – that there’s simply no way, given the mountain of documentation and other evidence, that Tuberville can establish that he’s lived in Alabama for the past seven years, and thus, he cannot meet the residency requirements of the state where he wishes to be governor.
At this point, it doesn’t seem as if I’m alone in that belief. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve heard a solitary soul, outside of the meek denials offered by Tuberville himself, argue that he can prove his residency.
And that brings me to what this column is actually about – the law.
More specifically, I’m wondering whether anyone cares about the law anymore, or if it is one more thing that has been murdered by partisan politics.
Last week, in anticipation of Tuberville announcing his candidacy for governor in Alabama, AL.com published a story in which it spoke to several people who explained why they believed the former Auburn football coach and current U.S. senator was all but unbeatable. Solid candidates were running for the hills. Polls showed he’s running second in name ID only to Alexander Shunnarah.
But the story also quoted three people – former ALGOP chairman Bill Armistead, retired political science professor Jess Brown and former state Rep. Steve Flowers, who is now a political columnist – on Tuberville’s chances, and they were asked about his residency issues. All of them were dismissive, saying the issue is of no concern to GOP voters.
Both Flowers and Brown, though, said this: There are nine Republican justices on the Alabama Supreme Court and they’ll overturn any decision that goes against Tuberville.
Pardon me, but, what?
Are we just casually talking about state supreme court justices blatantly ignoring the constitution of this state in order to protect their party mate? Is that what we’re doing now?
It turns out, yes. That’s absolutely what we’re doing.
Over the past week, I’ve heard this take — that the ALSC would protect Tuberville — over and over and over. Not in a “oh my God, you won’t believe what I’m hearing” way, but in a “yeah, so they’ll protect him and ignore the law, and oh, could you remember to get some milk” sort of way. As if it’s simply a foregone conclusion and just the way things are at this point and time.
Now, before we move on, I have to say that I’m not so sure the justices would make such a ruling. I’ve criticized them in the past for many, many insane rulings, but those opinions were built around ideology and personal beliefs, not so much a flat disregard for the state’s Constitution. In fact, in a very similar case, and on multiple occasions in that case, the state’s highest court consistently ruled against the Republican politician at the center of a residency challenge.
But it’s a problem that so many people think that’s the way this works – that they expect it to work that way. And that they’re apparently OK with it working like that.
It’s not OK. In fact, it’s terrifying that so many people believe it is.
Because where does it stop?
Is it just OK for a judge to ignore the residency issues of a person from a favored political party? Is it also OK to ignore other violations by people from that party? Is fraud OK? What about assault or rape? Where do we draw the line if it’s not clearly defined by the letters on the page?
There’s going to be a cop out here, where people bring up differing legal opinions on similar issues. That’s not what this is. It’s not a philosophical debate on when life begins or on what constitutes libel or slander.
This is simply people being OK with a person not being held accountable for defying the law because of political affiliation.
We can’t allow that. Not for politicians to skate around residency requirements. Not for presidents to violate due process protections. Not for reality TV stars to get bogus pardons in fraud cases because they’re reality TV stars.
It doesn’t matter which side is benefiting, either. When you ignore the law to appease political partisanship, it always, always comes back to bite you.
