Oregon Has Indicted A Legislator For Following The Constitution

Oregon once had a citizen legislature defined in two different ways.

First, people with real jobs in the real world would run for office.  They’d go to Salem and write the laws that govern the state.  If they only served a few years that was okay, they had a life to return to.

Now, the legislature has become a full time job for nearly all of the Representatives and Senators.

Second, the Oregon Constitution requires that when the legislature meets, it must meet in public

Then came the pandemic.

Governor Lockdown Kate Brownshirt issues edits and declares herself immune from oversight by the people’s reps

The legislature decides it can write laws for the people without allowing the people in the building.

Now, Representative Mike Nearman faces criminal charges.

His crime?

This representative of the people is accused of letting people into a building owned by the people that by the law must be open to the people.

That’s a crime today?

Four days before last Christmas, Nearman let people into the building.

Now he’s facing indictment and a trial and maybe conviction.  So much for the citizen legislature.