LEGISLATURE | Fremont Assemblymember Bob Wiekowski represents one of the largest concentrations of lawful permanent immigrants in the state. Giving this group the right to pass judgment on their peers in court is a politically expedient move. However, Gov. Jerry Brown did not agree with the premise.
Brown pulled out his veto pen Monday against Wieckowski’s bill granting lawful permanent immigrants the ability to serve on juries. “Jury service, like voting, is quintessentially a prerogative and responsibility of citizenship,” Brown said in his veto message. Noting the bill would allow those not yet citizens to serve on juries, he added, “I don’t think that’s right.”
Wieckowski, a second-term assembly member with sights on running for the State Senate next year, said he was disappointed by Brown’s veto. In fact, the governor’s use of the veto pen has been few and far apart over the past month. Bills approved by the Legislature have until Oct. 13 to be signed by the governor.
The rationale for allowing non-citizens to serve was based on the idea lawful residents are already part of the communities they live. Why should they not be able to uphold the laws they, too, abide? A larger pool of potential jurors, of which Wieckowski said there is a shortage in the state, would have also been alleviate by his bill, he has said in the past. “I don’t see anything wrong with imposing this civic obligation on immigrants who can spend the rest of their lives in the United States,” said Wieckowski.
Opponents of Assembly Bill 1401 said it would have diluted the meaning of becoming an American citizen and give fewer impetus for striving to attain such status.
We love Bob in our District and he will be our next Senator. Get over your Tea Party extremism because you are destroying our country.
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Agreed. Whack jobs like you are destroying our country. We can't stand Bob, and G-d willing, he will soon be retired. Good old-fashioned conservative values will lead the way.
“My name is Bob HOwieckowski. I'm the original pander-bear!”
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We love Bob in our District and he will be our next Senator. Get over your Tea Party extremism because you are destroying our country.
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“My name is Bob HOwieckowski. I'm the original pander-bear!”
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We love Bob in our District and he will be our next Senator. Get over your Tea Party extremism because you are destroying our country.
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“My name is Bob HOwieckowski. I'm the original pander-bear!”
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We love Bob in our District and he will be our next Senator. Get over your Tea Party extremism because you are destroying our country.
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“My name is Bob HOwieckowski. I'm the original pander-bear!”
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Bob Wiekowski failed to provide any provision in his bill to make any differentiation between a person in this country for 24 hours or 24 years.
It is technically possible under the text of his bill to have a jury composed of 12 men from the tribal regions of Pakistan, who have all arrived on a flight one week ago, to sit in judgment on you regarding a domestic violence arrest.
No matter that the 12 men had spent 99.99% of their life in Pakistan, they would be able to pass judgment on cases involving American law and American cultural norms, never having lived in the USA for more than a month.
That is what his hair brained bill allowed as written.
If they could sit on a jury and send you to jail, what case could you also make against them voting?
Remember, many people who legally immigrate to the USA are “legal permanent residents” from the moment they step off the plane. Though in the country for only 10 minutes that qualifies them according to Bob Wiekowski to sit in judgment of you, and send you to prison or otherwise.
To me, that is a more serious part of citizenship than even voting, as ONE single individual can change the out come of a verdict. Far more often than one person can change the outcome of a election.
Bob Wiekowski wrote this bill purely to pander for votes.
Almost makes Mary Hayashi look viable by comparison.
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Thank G-d! Jerry finally has demonstrated some common sense.
Bob should be taken to the wood shed over this. In the end, he got his comeuppance!
Now we just knock back amnesty for illegals, and we're back to making some progress.
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