Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall speaks during the July 11 Board meeting. (Image: CCBC)
July 16, 2023 by David Silverberg
At the Collier County Board of Commissioners meeting on July 11, Commissioner Chris Hall (R-District 2) gave a brief speech explaining his justification for planning to introduce a “Bill of Rights Sanctuary County Ordinance” at the upcoming August 22 meeting.
The speech contained a number of points that merit further examination, analysis and comment.
These were different than the arguments for a nearly identical ordinance introduced almost precisely two years earlier in 2021. That ordinance was defeated by a 3 to 2 vote of the Board.
In the discussion prior to the 2021 vote, members of the public advocating passage insisted that commissioners pass the ordinance or resign. Their tone was bullying, dictatorial and autocratic. They demanded that the Board ignore all the potential consequences pointed out by opponents—illegality, unconstitutionality, litigation, disruption, loss of federal funding, and damage to the county, to name a few—and nullify federal law simply because they demanded it.
That approach didn’t succeed then.
So what arguments is Hall using to promote this ordinance now and how valid are they?
The speech
Hall stated in his speech: “And so, this whole thing is brought up, we heard comments today that we’re looking to cherry-pick federal law, that we’re looking to secede from the union, that we’re looking to nullify federal law that we don’t like and that’s so much baloney.”
In fact, those comments were valid arguments from opponents. The proposed ordinance does all those things. But Hall is confusing intentions and impacts.
Hall and his allies, most notably lawyer Kristina Heuser, who drafted the 2021 version, may not have intended to treat American laws as a buffet, selecting some and rejecting others, or effectively seceding from the United States, or nullifying federal law in Collier County, but that’s the ordinance’s impact.
When a jurisdiction rejects federal authority, it rejects everything that comes with it; all the laws, acts, orders, rules, and regulations as well as the federal government’s grants, funding, benefits, support and protection.
The law of the land must be adhered to in its totality. Rejecting it makes one an “outlaw”—literally, someone outside the law and subject to all the resulting penalties and punishments. Law is an all or nothing proposition. There’s no picking and choosing; the law is the law.
It has been well established that US federal law supersedes any city, state or county’s preferences. Remove it and there’s nothing but chaos. In this case, nullifying federal law leaves Collier County lawless.
It’s also worth noting that Collier County is already on the record accepting, adhering and faithfully supporting the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States, now and in perpetuity. It expressed this allegiance in a resolution that passed the Board of Commissioners on July 13, 2021, the same day it rejected the first nullification ordinance.
What’s deeply disturbing here is that Hall—and presumably his allies—seem unable to distinguish between the intentions in their heads and the impact they’re imposing on the ground. That’s not a good attribute for lawmakers or legislators.
And, as the old saying goes: “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
“I don’t know where all that started but it’s out there.”
It started with drafting an ordinance that nullifies federal law! There’s no mystery here. Any literate citizen can read the proposed ordinance and draw his or her own conclusions—and they did. It’s “out there” because the ordinance is “out there.” Whatever anyone may believe to the contrary, people still read, they still think and they can draw their own conclusions—and they have done so about this ordinance.
“I just want to publicly put an end to all of that because this is an ordinance, a sanctuary for the Bill of Rights. A sanctuary is just a safe place.”
Indeed it is and the greatest sanctuary in the history of the world is the United States of America. It was a sanctuary for the Pilgrims who came to find religious freedom, it was a sanctuary for immigrants who came to find life, liberty and pursue happiness, and today it remains a sanctuary for democracy and all the human rights embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Essentially, the nullification ordinance is an attempt in Collier County to de-sanctify the sanctuary for inalienable human rights that is the United States of America.
“So I’m bringing this up because in case things ever twist off in Washington, DC, in case things ever twist off, God forbid, in Tallahassee, we’re going to have a sheriff that’s going to back and honor the Bill of Rights that were given to us in the Constitution of the United States of America.”
Concern that things might “twist off” is justified because things did indeed “twist off” in Washington, DC—on Jan. 6, 2021.
As Southwest Florida’s own Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), who was present that day, put it in a statement at the time: “We are a nation of laws that have governed this exceptional Constitutional Republic for more than two centuries, and no amount of anger should ever compromise that,” and “sadly today, a bunch of lunatics tried to destroy that truth”—that “the Rule of Law, and the institutions…make America the greatest country ever to exist.” He called the mob violence “thuggery” and “a tragedy.”
Fortunately, authorized forces of discipline and order, governed and guided by law, put an end to the insurrection and attempted coup. Those forces of law and order, like the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have investigated and punished the “lunatics” and thugs who attempted to overthrow the government. They continue to investigate and prosecute them to this day.
But it takes all law enforcement—federal, state and local—to protect and enforce the law. A local sheriff is not empowered to abrogate federal law or take its enforcement entirely into his or her own hands. An armed enforcement organization unmoored in law is no longer a law enforcement agency but a vigilante posse, a mob, a horde.
Southwest Florida has experienced this before. Almost exactly 100 years ago, on May 25, 1924 in Fort Myers, Fla., a white mob lynched two African American teenagers who were accused of raping white girls with whom they were seen swimming. The boys were hanged without trial. The local sheriff was unable or unwilling to stop the violence.
Take away the authority of federal law and a local sheriff, far from protecting the Bill of Rights, is more likely to be helpless, or complicit, in the face of its violation—with potentially lethal results.
“We’re going to have the right to bear arms, we’re going to have the right to due process of law, we’re not going to have to take soldiers and put them in our house, every one of those Bill of Rights.”
Those are exactly the rights that American citizens have now under the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. There’s no need to carve out a county exception to them. In fact, it’s more important to strengthen them, as Collier County’s existing Bill of Rights resolution does.
“The one gentleman said. ‘What about the 11 through the 27th?’ We’re not nullifying those.
Yes you are, if you nullify federal law in Collier County. And it’s worth remembering that those other amendments include things like birthright citizenship and prohibition of slavery, as the gentleman, Todd Truax, pointed out.
Those rights also include the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Hall and his allies may not be consciously threatening women’s suffrage but they will put it in jeopardy if they nullify federal law. The Supreme Court has struck down a woman’s right to abortion. Will an outlaw Collier County now strike down a woman’s right to vote—however inadvertently?
“We just want to make it a safe place here. We’re not looking to do anything other than live life happily ever after. But in case anything ever happens, I would like to have an ordinance that the sheriff has the authority to enforce.”
Collier County, Florida, USA, is a safe place thanks to the supremacy of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Its residents can live life happily ever after under the protection of American law at the federal, state and local levels. If they deem a law unconstitutional they can challenge it in court. If they want to make their opinions known, they have a right to free speech and to petition government for redress of grievances. Standing behind those rights is the full force and faith of the United States as empowered by its Constitution.
Compared to that majesty, a rogue Collier County unmoored in federal law, as this ordinance proposes, would be a place of extreme unsafety, without any guarantee of protected rights or personal security.
Not only does the ordinance threaten individual citizens, it threatens the county in every way, from its smooth functioning and management to the personal security of its leaders and employees. Every Collier County official—especially its commissioners—would be at risk for personal bankruptcy for simply doing their duty since the ordinance will be enforced through civil lawsuits and officials will have to pay for their legal defense out of their own pockets.
As the county attorney pointed out in 2021, the ordinance invites frivolous litigation. Collier County would become a legal hellscape of greedy attorneys jostling like jackals to rip chunks of county money from its coffers and officials’ personal bank accounts—and those of their families.
It would also empower a single, wealthy, litigious individual alleging, however flimsily, that his rights had been violated, to beggar the county’s officials, impose a reign of legal terror and nullify not just federal laws but all county ordinances protecting its citizens. This single individual would be able to bring the county’s functioning to a halt and force it to bend to his whim just as surely as if he held a gun to every official’s head—and by passing this ordinance commissioners would in effect hand him that gun.
An issue that was not raised at the meeting is the fact that this ordinance would render Collier County and everyone and everything in it uninsurable. At a time when insurers are pulling out of Florida due to extreme risk, Collier County would add another incentive to avoid insuring the homes, businesses and persons in its jurisdiction.
The insurance industry is heavily regulated at the federal level. A county that declares itself unbound by federal law would be a market in which insurance companies would be unable to function without potentially violating their governing charters and regulations. They could lose their licenses and be prosecuted or sued for operating there.
So in addition to suffering the extreme risk of storms and natural disasters, this ordinance would not only be a disincentive to insure anything in Collier County, it would be a near-insurmountable barrier if a company actually wanted to do business.
“So with that, I want to bring that forward on July the 25th [later changed to Aug. 22] and I’m sure we’re going to hear a million comments about it.
It’s not sufficient to simply resign oneself to receiving “a million” comments in opposition, and just dismiss them as a reaction of liberals, or leftists or chronic malcontents. It’s more important to ask oneself why there are “a million” negative comments. Might there be some wisdom in this overwhelming perception? Could it be because “a million” people recognize this ordinance as A REALLY BAD IDEA?
Nor should a public servant simply scan the subject lines of “a million” e-mails and simply ignore them. Perhaps it’s important as a public servant to read what these constituents and citizens are actually saying and ponder the substance of their messages.
“You know, when I ran for this office, I ran to protect and secure the rights of the people and we’re not looking to do anything other than to do that. We want to enhance your rights and protect them even more than what you feel you already have protected. So I wanted to say that publicly because there’s going to be those out there…I’m sure I’m going to get e-mails. But flame-suit on.”
It’s a worthy aim to protect and secure people’s rights. But the way to do it is not to carve out exceptions from the laws and the Constitution. The best thing that can be done is to withdraw the threat of nullifying federal law in Collier County and drop this deeply flawed ordinance altogether.
Sometimes the noblest act of all is simply to do no harm.
The very best outcome would be to let August 22 pass as just another steamy summer day in Southwest Florida.
Going forward
During the meeting, Commissioner Burt Saunders (R- District 3), asked that the vote on the ordinance be held over until September, when many residents were back in the area—including him.
Hall rejected holding it that long, although he agreed to hold it until August 22 as a professional courtesy to Saunders.
But Hall made the point that anyone could participate remotely.
“People have every opportunity to send us e-mails, to call us, to write us, to Zoom in. I mean, just because they’re not here and there’s going to be other items that I’m going to be on the other side of, that my people are going to have the same opportunity.”
It’s interesting that Hall referred to ordinance supporters as “my people.” As a county commissioner, “his people” should be everyone in the 2nd District, which stretches from the county line in the north to Pine Ridge Road in the south and from the coast in the west to roughly Interstate 75 in the east. He should be serving all of them, even those with whom he disagrees. Instead, he sees himself serving only a small and ideologically-driven minority.
But in his larger point, Hall was right: people should take the opportunity to call, write and Zoom and express their opinions on this issue at any time before August 22.
This otherwise obscure and remote county is facing a choice. It can become a lawless, outlaw MAGAstan that rejects America’s laws, history, Constitution and, most importantly, its Bill of Rights. Or it can celebrate its past century and prepare itself for a happy and prosperous next century and remain Collier County, Florida, USA, with all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the dignity and protection bestowed by 247 years of history, struggle and democracy.
And yes, the choice is that stark.
________________
Commission Chair Commissioner Rick LoCastro (R-District 1) has complained in the past that too many e-mails sent to his office were repetitious and unoriginal, seemingly automatically generated by bots. Messages to commissioners should be original and individual and the more personal the better.
Collier County’s Commission districts.
Collier County commissioners can be reached by mail at the address:
Board of County Commissioners, Collier County Government Center, 3299 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, FL 34112.
To contact commissioners by e-mail and phone:
Rick LoCastro, Chairman
Commissioner, District 1
Rick.LoCastro@CollierCountyFL.gov
239-252-8601
Chris Hall
Commissioner, District 2
Chris.Hall@colliercountyfl.gov
239-252-8602
Burt L. Saunders
Commissioner, District 3
Burt.Saunders@CollierCountyFL.Gov
(239) 252-8603
Dan Kowal
Commissioner, District 4
Dan.Kowal@colliercountyfl.gov
239-252-8604
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Commissioner, District 5
Bill.McDaniel@colliercountyfl.gov
239-252-8605
A full copy of the proposed ordinance can be read and downloaded by clicking on the button below. (Contact TheParadiseProgressive@gmail.com regarding any difficulties accessing or downloading the document.)
Below, the Collier County Bill of Rights reaffirmation resolution passed unanimously on July 13, 2021.
Liberty lives in light
© 2023 by David Silverberg
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