« Lose the Beer Belly | Main | Reality Follows the Dave Chappelle Show »

January 10, 2006

Is the Lottery Illegal?

Now that the North Carolina Legislature has passed the ill-advised lottery bill, and we're well on the way to having what appears to be the most wasteful and corrupt lottery in the land, storms are appearing on the horizon. The biggest storm, right now, is a lawsuit against the legislature charging that the lottery was illegally passed. Senator Eddie Goodall of Union County has written an op-ed detailing the basic problem with the Lottery's passing. The problem is constitutional in nature, so I'll quote not only from the op-ed, but also from the North Carolina Constitution.

"After the first reading of the lottery act when it was introduced, the House passed its version of the lottery on April 6 with a 61-59 vote on second reading and a voice vote on third reading. The Senate passed its version of the lottery Aug. 30 when the lieutenant governor broke a 24-24 tie to give the bill a one-vote majority."

That, from the op-ed. Now, the North Carolina Constitution:

"No laws shall be enacted to raise money on the credit of the State, or to pledge the faith of the State directly or indirectly for the payment of any debt, or to impose any tax upon the people of the State, or to allow the counties, cities, or towns to do so, unless the bill for the purpose shall have been read three several times in each house of the General Assembly and passed three several readings, which readings shall have been on three different days, and shall have been agreed to by each house respectively, and unless the yeas and nays on the second and third readings of the bill shall have been entered on the journal."

Since the third reading in the House with a voice vote, the "yeas and nays" were not "entered on the journal" on that vote. This is NOT in keeping with the proper procedures of the NC Constitution. Any bill passed in any method that is not in keeping with proper procedures of the NC Constitution is invalid and illegal. Thus, the lottery is not valid law, and any advancement of it should be halted immediately.

Either our Constitution is the strict law by which all government activities and laws in this state must be governed, or it is nothing at all. The whole reason we have a constitution is to define how our government is to operate, and what limitations are placed on it. If the current Legislature means to ignore our Constitution, then it should be removed. Considering how much it has ignored our Constitution in the recent past, especially regarding election law, I think we're nearing a time when we should consider calling in the US Department of Justice or the federal court system to enforce the law.

Harsh?

No.

Posted by Lockjaw at January 10, 2006 11:48 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.lockjawslair.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/296

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Is the Lottery Illegal?:

» That pesky constitution from PEER Review
Lockjaw's Lair has a wonderful observation of the pesky nature of a constitution - Once it outlines a procedure it must be followed.We could only be so lucky if this were the end of the illegal NC Lottery, but I [Read More]

Tracked on January 13, 2006 5:38 PM

Comments

Post a comment