— from Nick Power —
On Friday June 22, 2018 Nick Power, current candidate for the office of San Juan County Prosecuting Attorney filed for a Temporary Restraining Order against San Juan County and its Auditor Milene Henley in federal district court in Seattle.
Mr. Power asks the Court require the immediate removal from the official homepage of San Juan County an “op-ed” piece written by the County Auditor.
On May 21, 2018, Mr. Power brought suit against the San Juan County because a County ordinance limited the posting of political signs to a period of 45 days before an election. Time limits on the placing of political signs have been repeatedly held unconstitutional because they violate free speech under the First Amendment.
After the suit was filed, the County agreed that the ordinance that limited when a political sign could be posted was unconstitutional.
However, on May 30, 2018, San Juan County Auditor, Milene Henley posted an “op-ed” on the County’s website saying that despite the unconstitutionality the time limit should nevertheless serve as a “guideline” and that such signs were “pesky,” an “infection,” and as “blight.”
Mr. Power requests the removal of this “op-ed” piece because it is an official act which has the effect of chilling the rights of citizens to speak freely on political matters.
A time for the hearing has yet to be set, but because of the emergency nature of the request, the Court is expected to hear this matter within the next week.
ATTACHMENTS:
Really?
What???? This seems like a massive waste of money and effort. A restraining order for an OP-ED piece? What about the First Amendment? Will he be looking for a restraining order for that too?
Trumpian publicity stunt by Nick Power!
This is not a First Amendment question. Milene is free to write whatever she wants pretty much wherever she wants under the First Amendment. As the County’s election official, though, she cannot–as I understand the law–properly suggest in an article posted on the County’s official website that an ordinance that is clearly unconstitutional should be kept on the books and used as “guide.”
Janet, it’s posted on the County web site not an op-ed in a local paper written by a citizen. She’s an elected official and one of her responsibilities is overseeing elections. You may not think so but I believe it is completely inappropriate and may even show bias towards a particular candidate. Besides, public employees don’t have First Amendment protection when acting in their official capacity.
I think in this era of polarization we need to remember that everything doesn’t need to be distilled to two competing narratives. In this instance it’s possible for two things to be true, even if they represent different sides of the story.
Narrative 1: Power is clearly unfit for public office and he’s clearly pulling from the Trump playbook. He’s oblivious to community perceptions and prioritized antagonism and confrontation over all else. I don’t care who you vote for in fall, so long as it’s not this guy.
Narrative 2: Auditor Henley made a mistake and County did too by giving her a platform. She’s known for having strong and not always well thought through opinions, and being a bit combative- but I think her heart was in right place with this. I can pretty much guarantee she didn’t write her article in order to help the incumbent PA- he’s just one of many people she’s in open conflict with.
So we’ll see how this unfolds, but for me I see this as a blowhard long shot candidate battling an overreachin bureaucrat. Let’s not turn this into anything more.
Thank you Darlene. And come on, all, let’s think this one through… Many folks are sadly still under the “gaylord spell” and cannot see anything he/they do as wildly inappropriate and/or wrong. It is time to get someone into the prosecuting attorney’s office who stops and thinks at least once in awhile…. Ask me about my personal experience being charged by Randy Gaylord!
Ms. Brownell, the misuse of public resources lies, in this case, with county authorities for allowing space and paid time to Ms. Henley to express her personal opinion about political postering. Writing an opinion piece disagreeing with a court decision on a county website as a county official is not okay. For those of you concerned about Freedom of Speech, consider that the court decision made was to allow the maximum extension of free speech while the constitutionality of a restrictive law is considered. If Ms. Henley disagrees with the court’s decision, the proper place for an opinion piece is the newspaper or Facebook. I thank you for your service, but I would be more comfortable if our elected officials took some time to think about impartial and ethical use of public resources instead of making ad hominem attacks.
Jim Swenson — well stated.
I totally “get” that signs can be overdone. But free speech cannot be overdone. If you have a government official who is in charge of conducting free and fair elections actively using their position to try to impress on citizens a rule that is constitutionally impermissible — and that works to the advantage of incumbents — then that needs to be called out. Remember, all Auditor Henley had to do was take down her op-ed from the County website. I asked for the County to do that — but they would not comply. I have no qualms about Ms. Henley publishing her thoughts on privately owned media sites, as a “private citizen” but public resources should not be used for electioneering.
Let’s think this one through: Do we really want to see campaign signs littering our streets for twice as long?
I find it semi-humorous that people are invoking the first amendment over an issue, that at its heart, is because of a rule that unconstitutionally restrains first amendment protections.
The real uproar here should be directed at the County Council, who, while fully aware that an unconstitutional rule exists in the county code, have done nothing to correct the error. Every elected official, from our lowly Parks District all the way up to the POTUS is charged in their oath of office to uphold the Constitution in the execution of their duties. Had the root issue been dealt with correctly in the first place none of this would be happening.
To those who consider Mr. Powers’ action “Trumpian” in nature, I would counter that you are viewing the issue backwards. His action is consistent with every organization and entity that has pushed back on perceived violations of executive power over the last several years. This is simply another case of a citizen bringing a case in order to maintain what he believes (and is backed by in law) to be a governmental violation of his rights. I agree that it is a gigantic waste of County resources… but that certainly is not Mr. Powers’ fault.
there is no customary length of time. Randy has already conceded that the temporal limitation is unconstitutional. In Court. In front of a judge. This case was removed to federal court, by the county, on an entirely different issue.
First off I know Power, He is one of the furthest people I know from “Trumpian” Power is a Bernie guy.
Nick Power lives a couple miles from me and I’ve known him since he moved here and I still don’t know who he is “aligned with” nor who he “represents”. A good quality for a P.A.
My experience in living in these islands for over 50 years is that vast majority of islanders can be trusted to not cause blight along our roads. We do not want or need the government “force of law” when we are hurting another’s perception of what is pretty and proper.
Now to the issue of conflict…..While we might agree with the gist of what Milene Henley wrote BUT she is clearly out of bounds to inflict her own sanctimonious ethos about how to behave…. From her elected office. Power is not the one who is wasting county money but rather the current county leadership for knowingly allowing the unconstitutional county law to continue.
Mike Carlson–exactly. Attacking a candidate for seeking relief from a clearly unconstitutional “policy” is bizarre. Resolving the issue is up to the County, but the County does not seem inclined to do so. The unconstitutional “policy” happens to benefit incumbents.
So Power is suing the County. The last County case that he was involved in was the Grellet-Tinner petition to charge the deputy involved. That case was dismissed. And Power has intended to represent Grellet-Tinner in a $10M lawsuit against the Cuonty. And now he’s running for Prosecutor?
Power exposed a major problem with County government. Perhaps we should address that?