- United States
- Ariz.
- Letter
I am writing to emphasize your constitutional responsibilities as a state elected official.
Arrests made without lawful authority violate the constitutional protections owed to every person under the state’s jurisdiction. Such violations represent a breakdown of both lawful governance and constitutional order.
Rights hold meaning only when violations carry enforceable consequences. Without remedies, rights are meaningless. This is why courts, laws, and oaths exist: to make constitutional limits real in action, not just symbolic in principle.
Remedies can be politically uncomfortable, yet they are essential to accountability and to preserving constitutional rights.
States retain authority to define lawful conduct, protect access to essential civic institutions, and provide civil remedies when constitutional violations occur. Enforcing those boundaries does not obstruct lawful federal action. It affirms that all exercises of power within the state remain subject to constitutional constraint.
I support state policies that protect access to essential civic institutions from unlawful civil enforcement actions. I also support measures that provide civil accountability when constitutional rights are violated and that ensure responsibility attaches to those who exercise power unlawfully.
I urge you, and all my elected officials, to honor your oath of office by upholding constitutional limits and protecting the rights of every resident.