The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is historically a bipartisan, independent commission of the U.S. federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, charged with the responsibility for investigating and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues that face the nation.
Consisting of 8 commissioners that serve 6 year staggered terms, 4 appointed by the president and four by Congress, the bipartisan Commission cannot have more than four Commissioners of the same political party nor can the Congressional appointees, two from each House be of the same political leaning. It is interesting to note that the current Commissioners consist of 5 Democrats, 2 Independents and 1 Republican. When Obama appointed Patricia Timmons-Goodson this year, the USCCR official website listed her as an Independent but according to previous postings, including the N.C. Democratic Party, Mrs. Goodson is a Democrat.
One of the Commissioners Michael Yaki, an attorney and former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, appointed by Nancy Pelosi, is behind the call for an investigation into Stand Your Ground Laws as a civil rights issue. Yaki is a far-left democrat who in 2008 served as Platform Chair of Obama for America.
In a Huffington post article in December 2012, Tough Gun Control Can Be Constitutional, Yaki claimed that Obama would be defined by his legacy of how far he was willing to go to reduce the number and availability of guns and proposed that Obama:
- Restrict gun ownership to only home self-defense thereby putting an end to concealed carry laws. Possession of a gun outside of the home would require mandatory jail time.
- Require passing a federally mandated and regulated ownership and psychological test in order to get a license to purchase a gun which would be renewable only after passing the same test every couple of years.
- Eliminate private sales of firearms except between those already licensed by the government and registering the transfer with the federal government.
- Confiscate guns from anyone convicted of a crime or anyone who voluntarily or involuntarily is committed to a mental institution.
- Register all ammunition brought and owned above a certain capacity deemed (by the government) to be necessary for home defense.
- Register and regulate hunting rifles separately, requiring a separate license and even heavier restrictions on usage and ammo.
- Restrict the number of guns that any individual or family can own for home defense.
- Ban the manufacture and sale of “upgraded” hollow point, talons, etc. except for police use.
- Permanently render all collector guns unable to fire unless owned by a museum.
- Fund research into advancing technology to require fingerprint locks on all guns.
According to Yaki “infringing on a constitutional right is no small matter, and the Court made damn clear that because the Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, it essentially is as protected as any other constitutional right, say freedom of speech,….It means any legislative scheme” would have to pass the smell test and “by allowing” some people to get permission from the federal government to own a gun for home defense “ensures that their Second Amendment rights are upheld.”
Yaki was involved in a recent dispute on another guaranteed right – the right to free speech which he would like to restrict on college campuses. According to Yaki, who describes himself as a First Amendment Absolutist, adolescents, especially college students, should not have First Amendment rights since they aren’t “developed sufficiently” to understand the concept.
Absolutism is a political doctrine that espouses unlimited centralized authority and absolute sovereignty vested in a central head, whether monarch or dictator. Absolutists believe that this ruling power should not be subject to regularized challenges or checks by any other agency whether judicial, legislative, religious, economic or electoral. Think Hitler or Stalin, and maybe to some extent, Obama.
Considering that 6 of the 8 Commission members were appointed by left-wing Democrats, I think we can fairly assume that these Stand Your Ground hearings will be anything but bipartisan or impartial.
