R.I.P. President Daniels

R.I.P. President Daniels



" What has rendered him unelectable, and possibly unfit for the governor's office he now holds, is a recent decision by the Indiana Supreme Court, with the majority opinion written by Daniels's sole nominee.

"Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes. In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry.

"We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David said. "We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."

– Court: No right to resist illegal cop entry into home, May 13, 2011

This horrific decision by the Indiana judges means that Americans, or at least Americans who happen to be living in Indiana, have fewer rights than medieval Englishmen. The decision isn't merely incorrect, it is a grotesque insult to the Fourth Amendment, to the United States Constitution, to the American Revolution, indeed, to the very concept of America itself. America is not a police state, and it is a travesty to claim that a nation born in violence against the legally constituted authorities does not have a right to resist them in their own homes.
And Daniels has thus far remained silent on the issue, when anything short of an abject apology for David's appointment combined with a demand for David's immediate resignation, and the resignation of the other two judges who sided with David, is absolutely necessary for him to remain a credible governor, let alone a president. And even if he does do as he must, the Indiana court decision raises serious questions about what sort of appointments Daniels would make in the unlikely event he were to find himself in the White House.

Ron Paul aside, the present slate of potential Republican candidates is an insipid and uninspiring collection of political hacks. "