{"id":32878,"date":"2016-04-10T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=32878"},"modified":"2016-04-05T11:59:48","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T16:59:48","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-state-representative-jay-hughes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/letter-to-the-editor-state-representative-jay-hughes\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor: State Representative Jay Hughes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I filed for an emergency restraining order in Hinds County Circuit Court to require the Mississippi Constitution be followed in the Mississippi House of Representatives. \u00a0Why?\u00a0 Because Article 4, Section 59 of the Constitution requires all bills be read before they are voted upon.\u00a0 Historically, the clerk has read each bill aloud.\u00a0 However, recently, an electronic device was purchased at taxpayers\u2019 expense to automatically read the bills aloud.\u00a0\u00a0 The option has been invoked by at least once every session, by both parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

This session, however, the Speaker has accelerated the reading machine to the highest level, which is faster than any human ear or mind can comprehend.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Despite pleas from representatives, the Speaker declared that the Constitution was silent about having to understand the bills, and refused to slow it down to the normal speed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right is right and wrong is wrong.\u00a0 This is no different than a bully on a public school playground. \u00a0\u00a0The Supreme Court ruled years ago:\u00a0 \u201cThe government has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men.\u00a0 It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There are no greater rights than those afforded in our Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Multiple bills for over $3 Billion of taxpayer money for education, roads and healthcare have passed along party lines without members being allowed to speak or ask questions. \u00a0The Education Committee passed seven major bills in less than ten minutes, without so much as a single word or question being posed by anyone outside the committee.\u00a0 I sat in another committee and watched the massive Airport Bill pass in less than one minute.\u00a0 There was no input from experts, and the Chairman refused to recognize a single person to offer amendments.<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t about a political party; it\u2019s about the rule of law.\u00a0 I had take a stand and say:\u00a0 This is not right!\u00a0 Please respect the process and our Constitution.\u00a0 That is why I chose to seek court intervention, in the very same court that the Commissioner of Agriculture did last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you disagree with a part of the Constitution, change it. Don’t just ignore it.\u00a0 I simply refuse to sit idly by and watch a mockery be made of our system of laws and tax dollars in Mississippi by outside money and influence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jay Hughes<\/span>
\n State Representative\u2013District 12<\/span>
\n It ALL starts with education!<\/span>
\n 662-816-2888\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I filed for an emergency restraining order in Hinds County Circuit Court to require the Mississippi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":11917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,1],"tags":[8186,1447,8184,8274,8272,8191,8273,3],"class_list":["post-32878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-opinion","category-uncategorized","tag-article-4","tag-jay-hughes","tag-mississippi-house-of-representatives","tag-reading-machien","tag-restraining-order","tag-section-59","tag-speaker","tag-the-local-voice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/LetterToTheEditorFeat.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}