Letters to the Editor
Michelle Fiore’s future: Who should decide what’s next?
The 33rd POTUS, Harry Truman, once complained — “I thought I was president, but when it comes to these bureaucrats, I can’t do a damn thing.”
Last week the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline proved that — more than 70 years after Harry Truman’s humorous grumbling— Presidents can still be overruled by unelected, unaccountable boards, bureaucrats and commissions.
The Judicial Discipline Commission decided that —notwithstanding President Trump’s pardon — Pahrump Justice of the Peace Michelle Fiore, is suspended from the job to which she was elected.
The Commission on Judicial Discipline arose as the result of a 1976 amendment to the Nevada Constitution, and has seven members, two judges, appointed by the Nevada Supreme Court, two attorneys, appointed by the State Bar, and three laypeople, appointed by the governor.
The question of whether or not Ms. Fiore should be allowed to return to the bench is indeed a legitimate concern. But the larger question is whether an unelected group of seven should have the power to make a decision that arguably overrides a Presidential Pardon and trumps the will of “We the People” – the voters.
The commission not only ordered that Ms. Fiore could not sit as a judge, it also ordered that we — the taxpayers — are required to continue to pay her salary despite the suspension. The ruling encapsulated: Michelle Fiore cannot be your judge—but you must still pay her full salary.
NRS 1.4677 lists the powers of the Commission on Judicial Discipline. Suspension WITH pay is NOT one of the specifically enumerated powers — Suspension WITHOUT pay —is.
Regulation, rulemaking, and use of tax money decisions by agencies, boards, bureaucrats and unelected unaccountable commissions has become so commonplace in America that most of us don’t blink an eye when these unelected tell us what we must do with our tax money, our businesses, our courts and our lives.
The founders, who went to war rather than have their money taken and directed by other than elected representatives are, no doubt, spinning in their graves. “No taxation without representation!”
As the brilliant thinker Thomas Sowell has said: “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
Again, the issue addressed is not what should be done concerning Michelle Fiore — the issue is who should make the decision. It seems the decision on employment and pay of Ms. Fiore as a Nye County justice should be made by elected Nye County representatives — or perhaps, directly by We the People.
Decision making is not always easy or comfortable and elected representatives may find relief in allowing bureaucrats and boards and others to make complex controversial decisions. In fact, the explosive proliferation of unelected unaccountable rulemaking, rule enforcing, tax money spending decisions by bureaucrats, boards, agencies, commissions, and committees may be—in part — the result of a political desire to sub-out some of the tough calls.
A baseball umpire almost always suffers complaint and criticism — but making the call is the essence of the job.
To paraphrase another Harry Truman quote, “The Buck Stops with…… We the People.”
P.S. Bovee
