From the email I just received:

On the day following the 221st anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, WTP Chairman and constitutional activist Robert Schulz today filed a federal lawsuit in United States District Court in Albany seeking to halt the execution of the emergency bailout of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) by the United States Government and the Federal Reserve.

The lawsuit asserts that the commitment of public funds and credit for the direct benefit of privately owned AIG is an ultra vires action by the United States Government and Federal Reserve, i.e., beyond the limited legal authority granted by the Constitution. The lawsuit asks for a “show cause” hearing demanding that the Government produce evidence of its legal authority to commit public funds for such a purpose, as well as emergency and permanent injunctions halting the bailout transaction.

Beyond the Constitutional deficiencies, the bailout establishes a dangerous precedent enabling the Fed and/or Government to nationalize virtually any business or property within the United States without legal authority or congressional approval.

The defendants include the Federal Reserve System, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanki, the U.S. Treasury, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Jr. and the United States Government.

The WTP Foundation today issued a press release citing Schulz:

“Beyond the moral hazard and dangerous precedent established by this action, it is of vital importance that the American people recognize that the present financial crisis is a direct and predictable result of decades of constitutional violations by the Federal  Government.  Through a long-standing policy of disinformation and collusion with the Federal Reserve and Wall Street financial elite, the United States Federal Government has denied public access to information about the secretive operations of the privately owned and operated Federal Reserve and its monopoly control of America’s money system.

“This monopoly control of our currency by a private banking cartel has resulted in increasing distortion, volatility and cyclical (boom and bust) economic conditions in the U.S. and abroad.  America’s fiat currency (produced from thin air) is manipulated by the Federal Reserve for the benefit of its owners, major Wall Street financial institutions and the Federal Government and is not unaccountable to the taxpayers. These abuses of the Constitution have taken our financial system to edge of the abyss. The chickens have come home to roost.”  Click here to read the Complaint, the Memorandum of Law supporting the TRO, and Schulz’s Declaration which includes several recent articles from the New York Times.

As the announcer from Smash TV once said: Good luck! You’ll need it!

This won’t get anywhere but it’s nice to see someone is trying.

http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org Docket 07-680, 07-681
petition for writ of certiorari: A document which a losing party files with the Supreme Court asking the Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court. It includes a list of the parties, a statement of the facts of the case, the legal questions presented for review, and arguments as to why the Court should grant the writ.
writ of certiorari: A decision by the Supreme Court to hear an appeal from a lower court.

The Statement of the Claim in the complaint says:

1. This Complaint arises from the failure of the President of the United States and his Attorney General and his Secretary of the Treasury and his Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and the failure of the United States Congress, to properly respond to Plaintiffs’ Petitions for Redress of Grievances against their government, namely: grievances relating to violations of the U.S. Constitution’s war powers, taxing, money, and “privacy” clauses.

2. This complaint also arises from the Executive Branch of the United States government in its retaliation against individual Plaintiffs for: Petitioning the government for a Redress of Grievances, namely grievances relating to violations of the U.S. Constitution’s war powers, taxing, money and “privacy” clauses, and for Peaceably Assembling and Associating with other individuals under the umbrella of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education and the We The People Congress.

I heard Bob Schulz speak at the Liberty Forum though not his primary presentation. I’ve been familiar with WTP for some time but their 1990’s style website always gave it a dilapidated feel and I never bother to look into what they were doing. I just found out about the lawsuit at the Liberty Forum and he had said they expected the SCOTUS to issue a judgment on whether to hear their appeal. As I suspected they denied their appeal and left the lower courts ruling intact. As far as I understand they said that you can petition the government for a redress of grievances but they don’t need to respond. I’m not so sure the original intent was to say it’s OK that people can ask the government questions without them answering. Otherwise the right to redress the government would be no different than the right of free speech. When I argue with people about the problems of the government, how they do things through force and it’s difficult to combat what they do, and they respond “we are the government” I have to try to describe how the government may supposedly represent us and is physically made up of our neighbors but we are decentralized. We have lives to live. Jobs to work and kids to feed. Their lives and jobs are expanding government and controlling people. We have an uphill battle. There is that quote which goes something like “One activist is worth a thousand layman.” According to Data360.org their is 19,514,000 government employees. That’s at local, state and federal levels. Nearly 7% of the population. Even if you account for freedom moles working within the system at a 1:1000 ratio or even 1:100 or even 1:10… we are outnumbered. I hope things like this help show those individuals that the deck is stacked against us. They have the upper hand and we have to work twice as hard to get things done. We screw up and our boss can be fired in a heartbeat. If a politician does something so blatant to upset those he represents he’s probably got the average of over a year till you can kick him out and than you can almost guarantee that the guy who tries to replace him will be almost the same regardless of what they say.

We need more activists who are on our team to help balance out the field. Hopefully the Ron Paul Revolution will help with that.

• H.R. 2725: Alarm Customer VOIP Notification Act of 2007. To require the Federal Communications Commission to adopt regulations to protect subscribers to Internet protocol telephone services concerning the use of such services with alarm, security, and personal emergency response systems. Section 2(b)(3): having a UPS is nice… but you are more likely to lose net service before electricity.
• H.R. 2756: Honest Money Act. To repeal section 5103 of title 31, United States Code. Sec. 5103. Legal tender: United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts. Our good friend Ron Paul. Here’s the explanation for this.
• H.R. 2730: Numismatic Rarities Certainty Act of 2007. To provide a clear line of demarcation with regard to private ownership of any coin, medal, or numismatic item made or issued by the United States Government before January 1, 1933. Good. So all those old coins people have would actually be theirs.
• H.R. 2717: Access to Medical Treatment Act. Appears it would allow doctors to perform medical treatments that have not been approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Oddly it says not approved or approved in the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Japan but not here. Doesn’t the first section cover the second?
• H.R. 2711: To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain computer-assisted remote hunting, and for other purposes. No computer-assisted remote hunting between states. Liberally interpreted this would ban it almost completely. The internet is interstate commerce. Perhaps if you could prove data traveled only within the state. Otherwise you’d have to setup a private network which wouldn’t be feasible.
• S. 1603: A bill to authorize Congress to award a gold medal to Jerry Lewis. More money wasted by the government. But hey… it is Jerry Lewis they’re talking about here.
  

H.J. 45: Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

The government can’t spend more than it brings in. What a novel idea. One problem:

Section 5. Total receipts shall include all receipts of the United States Government except those derived from borrowing. Total outlays shall include all outlays of the United States Government except for those for repayment of debt principal.

Shouldn’t those count? At least the repayment?

• H.R. 2362: To reduce the duty on certain golf club components. Is the golf club component industry that competitive we need tariffs on them?
• H.R. 2492: would protect the welfare of consumers by prohibiting price gouging with respect to road transportation fuel or domestic heating fuel during certain abnormal market disruptions. Another price gouging bill. ATM it’s not in the LOC so I don’t know how this one differs from the others.
  
• H.R 2469: Biennial Budgeting Act of 2008 Rep Ed Whitfield of KY wants to move budgeting from an annual to biennial because currently it takes too much of their time. Perhaps if they stopped spending so much on so many things they would have more time.
• S.J. Res. 4: A joint resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States. This is ridiculous. I’m not guilty for the sins of my father. Besides my family didn’t get to the USA till the 1900’s. All those who were personally involved are long dead.
• H.CON. Res. 152: Relating to the 40th anniversary of the reunification of the City of Jerusalem. Is this necessary? The arab world already thinks we are puppets of Israel.
• H.R. 2448: Emergency Gas Price Relief Act of 2007 Talked about this yesterday. It’s now in the LOC. None of the same sponsors as HR 2460. They want to drop the fuel tax $0.10 the day regular grade goes above $3.00 and raising it back when it drops below $2.50. I fail to see how this fixes anything.
• H.R. 2460: To protect the welfare of consumers by prohibiting price gouging by merchants with respect to gasoline and other fuels during certain abnormal market disruptions. Seems this is meant for president declared emergencies. Thought it’s more vague saying: “The President may issue an emergency proclamation when an abnormal market disruption has occured or is reasonably expected to occur.”