Learning About The Process of A Constitutional Challenge

If there is no one to challenge unconstitutional laws, government moves away from its constitutional foundations

Public Domain

Once I realized no local leaders are going to challenge a law that transfers Maine's constitutional Home Rule Authority from local governments to the state, and at the same time restricts speech. I submitted my own constitutional question to my Assistant Attorney General who told me there is "no free-standing right" to do such a thing or to "ask an opinion of the AG, an attitude that seems to reverberate through all levels of Maine government, in example the total dismissal of a citizens petition by the Boothbay school board, denying that it is required to run a reconsideration petition under the law.

Public Private Relationships and the Public School System

I responded that the free-standing right is codified in Rule 5.1, which is true, but the free-standing manifestation of that right is the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

It is one thing for the local school board to argue by asserting what the law states without giving any reference to the law, but it is more startling when the Attorney General’s office does the same. During our exchange, Mr Bolton asserted that petitioning the government about the constitutionality of a law is not a civil procedure. I responded by pointing to the name of the referenced law Rule 5.1. Constitutional Challenge to a Statute found under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In response to my original question, the Assistant AG told me that I could send my question electronically to his attention, which I did, but Rule 5.1 describes the electronic means as “designated by the AG” and so, by the letter of the law, my question has yet to be submitted in a legally defined manner.

Responding to the Assistant AG’s suggestion works for me as a learning process. Despite the assistant AG’s claim that there is no “free-standing right” to ask an opinion of the AG, we became engaged in a conversation and as a result, I realized that stand-alone RULE 5 is a complete menu of all the rules of civil procedure that explains how to go about the process. I did not come to this realization because the Assistant AG provided me with information about the legal process. I learned because I refuted his assertions with references to the legal process that I found first in Rule 5.1. and then followed further links. Now I know where the complete set of rules is located and I am aware that I have not yet officially filed my Constitutional Challenge which is the point at which the 60-day time frame for response begins. Before submitting my questions per the process defined in Rule 5.1, I will read all the rules

Civil Procedure Overview:

Broadly speaking, civil procedure consists of the rules by which courts conduct civil trials. "Civil trials" concern the judicial resolution of claims by one individual or class against another and are to be distinguished from "criminal trials," in which the state prosecutes an individual for violation of criminal law.

The Email Conversation between myself and Maine’s Assistant Attorney General as it unfolded: