Joel Rosenthal at Straight Talk has been doing a much better job than me at keeping an eye on the insane South Dakota Judicial Accountability Initiative Law (J.A.I.L.).
Perhaps the best was when South Dakota’s “JAILer-In-Chief,” Bill Stegmeier, appeared before the Senate State Affairs committee last Friday to testify against a resolution urging voters to reject the JAIL initative. I can’t get the audio from that meeting to run but the official minutes say it well enough:
Mr. Stegmeier refused to answer questions from the committee stating that he wasn’t prepared. He said he would respond to written questions. Upon further questioning, he still refused to answer.
If the proposed constitutional amendment is as simple as JAIL claims, you would think he would aleady be “prepared.” The resolution, which passed the House unanimously, is up in the committee again tomorrow. Reports were the committee was considering subpoenaing Stegmeier. Maybe he got “prepared” over the weekend
As an aside, I note JAIL still hasn’t announced who won its “Worst South Dakota Courtroom Horror Story” contest, even though the selections were to have been made more than three months ago. Maybe it’s tough to find one that meets the requirement that the story “must be verifiable.”
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Edmund Burke, The Portable Edmund Burke
