Examiner Local Editorial: Setback for CASA de Maryland

washingtonexaminer.com
By: Examiner Editorial
12/14/11 8:05 PM

CASA de Maryland suffered a setback last week in its ongoing attempts to deny Maryland citizens their constitutional right to vote on the controversial Dream Act, which grants in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants. In a joint stipulation with Judicial Watch -- the public interest group representing Dream Act opponents -- CASA agreed to drop its legal challenge to more than 132,000 signatures on the successful petition to place a Dream referendum on the November 2012 ballot.

MDPetition.com collected more than twice the required number of signatures, which were later validated by the Maryland State Board of Elections. CASA now has just one shaky argument left: Its claim that the Dream Act is not subject to referendum under Maryland law because it is an appropriations bill.

As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton points out, this is "an extremely tenuous argument." For one thing, Article XVI, Section 2 of the Maryland Constitution is unambiguous when it establishes referendum as the constitutional remedy for registered voters to challenge acts of the General Assembly with which they vehemently disagree.

Although the state constitution prohibits referendums on public appropriations, Fitton pointed out that the Dream Act is not an appropriations bill. The law passed by the Maryland General Assembly and signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley on May 10 was a general law involving a major policy change. It extended an existing state entitlement to an entire class of people previously ineligible because of existing state and federal law. It was not an appropriations or budget bill.

CASA's lead attorney in this political case is Joseph Sandler, a former Democratic National Committee lawyer who is now representing the financial interests of illegal immigrants against the constitutional rights of Maryland citizens. CASA collected $13 million in state and local grants last year, and is now effectively using taxpayers' own money against them in an attempt to thwart an historic citizen petition drive.

Maryland's own Department of Legislative Services estimates that the Dream Act will cost taxpayers $3.5 million by fiscal 2016. Notably, California's nonpartisan Department of Finance now says that the cost of its version of the Dream Act will be four times higher than previous projections. Californians are now also gathering signatures to put the issue before Golden State voters who, like Marylanders, are tired of having their pockets picked.

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