CAPR Newsletter, Goals, Legal, Events!

Dear CAPR members, affiliates, and friends please read below for news about CAPR goals and Legal Actions!

Citizens’ Alliance For Property Rights Campaign to Restore Liberty in Our Properties

Student of the history of Liberty Lord John Acton famously said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” With this in mind, as Free American Citizens we owe ourselves dutiful attention to the safeguarding of our Liberties. This seems an extraordinary task when we consider the behemoth government has become. It is in consideration of our Freedoms that we reach for what most Americans consider the baseline for the measurement of Liberty, our Federal and State Constitutions. The essence of Political Liberty is self-governance, and this can only be accomplished through interacting with our elected representatives; this is a responsibility we hold as citizens of a Representative Republic both individually and by acting together. Perhaps most damaging to our Liberty is Administrative Law. Administrative Law is created by Executive Acts through its own legislation and adjudication that constrain American Liberty outside of and above the constitutionally authorized avenues of power, the Legislative, Judicial, and to specific Executive Acts to exercise force. In Washington State, Administrative Law has grown to produce profound restrictions on Citizens’ Liberty through the creation of agencies that have the power to make and adjudicate law without the adequate Legislative oversight to cause an agency to adhere to constitutional law created by and for the people, where governmental power is limited. Administrative Law has been operating outside and above the law, rather than through and under law. That Administrative Law has created rules which are law and may adjudicate those laws has created a separate unconstitutional governmental branch where harm may be caused without due process, robbing Citizens of their Constitutional Rights. When agencies have rule making authority without meaningful checks, the results can be devastating, with fact, costs, and environmental integrity thrown aside in goal-seeking agency rule-making. Americans tend to think we have three branches of government, the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive, however, we have become the captives of the Administrative. Some of our Legislative Representatives have over time lost sight of this one particular important point in representation – they are to represent Citizens and guard our right to meaningfully address those agencies that proliferate and promulgate law through their rule-making authority. This authority has been operating without check and oversight for far too long, leading to the serious quandary of the absolute power of the unelected and the unaccountable, the agencies. A new look at the Enabling Acts of the Agencies in the Administrative Procedure Act is needed now. With 30 prepared amendments to the APA, we can help our Legislators regain their legislative power through amending Administrative Law. CAPR has worked hard to restore Liberty in Our Properties in this way throughout the 2015 session and will do so through the interim to bring the debate and fight back to session in January 2016. Should we also create amendments and push laws that place legal constraints and accountability on the Rule-making class as Individuals? If an action taken by an individual acting on behalf of an agency does cause harm to a property owner’s human and civil rights should that individual be prosecuted for a civil rights criminal offense and be held legally responsible for that damage? To answer that question and determine the range and validity of such laws, we must understand Washington State Administrative Law, and what actions are needed to through our Constitution restore our Property Rights. CAPR is working on such bills, what is needed is a general and deep understanding by Citizens of the problems caused Administrative Law, and a groundswell willingness to fight for reform. Our CAPR Legal Fund Cases are built around this principle, to right the wrongs caused by Administrative Law that has gone too far, damaging property rights; The Mills Case is a Clean Water Act legal action brought against the City of Duvall, WA to protect citizens from illegal use of their property by government in allowing storm water to cross their property, using it as a part of their storm water system. One of the goals of this action is to end the common occurrence of private, non-wetland properties being declared as wetlands to either excuse the flooding and in some instances to promote extreme environmental agendas. This case is currently awaiting a hearing by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals. CAPR v. San Juan County (WA) is a case against the county for failure to adhere to the WA Open Public Meetings Act as it went through the process of updating its Critical Areas Ordinance. This case was recently heard by the WA State Supreme Court and we are awaiting a decision. CAPR previously challenged the Shoreline Management Plan update of Jefferson County, WA before the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board (WWGMHB). Upon the approval of the Plan by the WWGMHB, CAPR filed an appeal in Jefferson Co. Superior Court. Fox v. Skagit County is a Property and Water Rights Case supported by CAPR Legal Fund. This action is currently before the WA State Appeals Court. The property owned by Richard and Marni Fox is one of 600 parcels in the Skagit River basin (3rd largest in the continental U.S) which have been stripped of their water rights by a WA Department Of Ecology administrative ruling which contends that ground water wells will deprive the river from having adequate flows for fish. Ecology has provided no valid science showing connection(s) between river flows and groundwater reserves, given that they are largely isolated one from the other. This case has potential for far reaching application for relief in water and property rights. Another Legal Action is being planned within the framework of this goal that will take on an additional tactic in fighting for Liberty in Our Properties, CAPR will provide an update on this information expected soon!