Vowing to Protect Rights, NY County Goes ‘Constitutional’
Lawmakers in a conservative western New York county voted unanimously late last month to become a “constitutional sanctuary” where the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights will be protected. Even the lone Democrat legislator voted in favor of the measure.
Under the legislation, Cattaraugus County declared itself to be a “Constitutional County, unwavering in its commitment to protect the constitutional rights of its citizens.”
As part of that, the county legislature vowed to use “all legal means at its disposal” to oppose unconstitutional efforts to infringe on the rights of citizens, whether those attacks come from the federal or state level. Gun rights in particular received special treatment.
Among other elements, the measure declares that no county employees, public money, resources, or buildings would be used to infringe on the rights of citizens or to help other levels of government enforce such unconstitutional restrictions.
Even the county’s mission statement was updated to pay homage to the Constitution and declare the legislature’s vision of protecting its constituents from “excessive and oppressive” governmental mandates.
“If state or federal government continue to overstep their bounds and intrude into the lives of our citizens with unconstitutional mandates, our legislature will step up and challenge that,” said Cattaraugus County Legislator Ginger Schroder, an attorney in private practice who drafted and pushed the resolution in response to pressure from the community.
In a phone interview with The Epoch Times, Schroder said constituents in her county were fed up with what they view as the increasingly extreme abuses and violations of the Constitution coming from Albany and Washington, D.C.