At times, like an outdated however long-forgotten pal, one thing we as soon as valued significantly involuntarily involves thoughts, reminding us how a lot we’ve got modified. So, it’s with our proper to petition the members of Congress.
Lest we overlook … American colonists went to conflict to protect their potential to complain to their authorities. In 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress despatched George III a petition, asking that they be allowed to barter with him in an effort to keep away from battle.
As British topics, they might count on this enchantment would attain the king as petitioning had been granted by the English monarchy for practically a century. However, George flatly refused to just accept the colonists’ plea, dismissively branding them as traitors.
Largely out of frustration with this response, the assembled legislators voted to declare the colonies’ independence and settle this concern on the battlefield. Thus, not surprisingly, when the Invoice of Rights was drafted after the Revolution, petitioning the federal government was enshrined within the First Modification as a elementary proper that would by no means be “abridged.”
Quick ahead to the Nineteen Nineties: E-mail was turning into broadly used and members of Congress had been cautious about how they might have the ability to cope with this new technique of communication. Their employees was already swamped by the each day avalanche of letters and the legislators couldn’t see how they might handle a a lot higher deluge, arriving via the web.
So, quietly, with out placing this coverage into regulation, the lawmakers modified the foundations for corresponding with them: henceforth, solely mail from constituents can be accepted. Inquiries, feedback, strategies and criticism from individuals residing exterior their Congressional districts and (for senators) states can be refused. Paradoxically, members of the U.S. Congress took their stand on the facet of George III.
At this time, petitioning any and all members of Congress stays an inconvenient, uncared for proper. Whereas it’s unequivocally affirmed in our Structure (as a “cognate” proper, selling democracy) and unambiguously protected by federal regulation, the scope of petitioning has been significantly decreased: out of 535 members of the legislative department, you and I’ve entry solely to 3 — our two senators and one member of the Home. (Teams can nonetheless ship petitions to all legislators: it’s solely people who’re so restricted.)
So far as I do know, over the previous 30 years, not a single member of Congress has argued that this residency requirement is unconstitutional, not to mention proposing to eliminate it. (Whenever you hear a lawmaker counsel “Write to your Congressman,” he’s actually telling you that your opinion doesn’t matter to him.) In the meantime, lobbyists, special-interest teams and — after all — donors face no such boundaries. Cash and highly effective affect can movement uninterrupted throughout district and state strains, whereas unusual citizen mail can not.
What’s to be accomplished about this illegal follow that’s so inimical to participating unusual People with the legislative course of? (Public opinion polls point out that the perceived indifference of lawmakers to public pursuits is making Congress more and more unpopular.) If members of the Home and Senate violate the Structure, we, logically, may search a treatment within the courts, however there’s no sympathetic ear there both.
Not too long ago, a case that I had introduced in Connecticut, difficult petition restrictions, was dismissed by a district court docket choose on the grounds that Congressional communications are a “legislative exercise,” and, as such, take pleasure in “absolute immunity” from judicial overview. And Congress, effectively … that’s the door that’s already tightly shut.
Evidently our greatest hope lies with know-how. Within the age of AI, arguments about Congressional places of work being overwhelmed by mass mailings not maintain any water. They will not justify limitations on proscribing public entry. To drive residence this level and persuade Congress to alter its methods, residents might want to make use of the petition itself — by organizing an enormous grassroots marketing campaign to advocate for the restoration of this as soon as sacred, inviolable and unrestricted proper. Petitioning is as vital these days because the Founders meant it to be, not as George III wished it to be.
