Vermont City Acts Unlawfully and Unconstitutionally, Judge Finds

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-boardman/58314/vermont-city-acts-unlawfully-and-unconstitutionally-judge-finds

Vermont City Acts Unlawfully and Unconstitutionally, Judge Finds
Constitution, Civil Rights, Civil Liberties | Government
by William Boardman | September 15, 2014 - 6:42am

~snip~

This is the story of how city officials first vilified city planner Gwen Hallsmith for exercising her First Amendment rights, then fired her for defending herself.

This is the story of how the city deprived Hallsmith of any semblance of reasonable due process of law in what was effectively a bureaucratic lynching, demanded by the mayor and carried out by the city manager and his assistant without out a trace of fair deliberation.

This is the story of how the Vermont Superior Court affirmed Hallsmith’s complaint of unlawful city behavior, finding that the city’s actions were blatantly unconstitutional and unfair – and then issued an order perpetuating the original injustice.

At its nasty little heart, this is a story that reflects the power of big banks to get their way, starting with their well paid legislative lobbyist, John Hollar, who also happens to be mayor of Montpelier, where there’s no hue and cry about such blatant conflict of interest. The vested interests in the city have not objected even when the bank-drenched mayor set about in early 2013 to pressure the city manager to muzzle his planning director when she failed to follow his personal party line. Her “insubordination” amounted to exercising her free speech right to support public banking.

[merrily]

1. Given my idyllic vision of Vermont, I am sorry to read this.

Thank goodness for good judges who do their jobs. Sadly, every time I read about a case decision that seems sound, I have to hope that the case never gets into the hands of the Supreme Court because we cannot always depend on Kennedy and the other four nominated by Republican Presidents are every bit as partisan as Limbaugh.

[Hoppy]

2. Can somone explain the underlying issue about the banks?