Critique of the Capital's description of the newly passed SBNC legislation

Capital Editorial

Our say: Hogan takes stand in school board battle, April 7, 2016.

Snider Comment

“Hogan’s description of the composition of the commission under the new bill is correct — but you can say pretty much the same thing about the current commission. The bill just changes the mix of political operatives and advocacy organization representatives.”

No, this summary of the legislation is wrong in at least two fundamental ways.  First, the Governor loses his ability to appoint commissioners.  Second, a veto proof majority of the commissioners are appointed by stakeholder groups rather than elected officials.  These are HUGE differences.  And the second one is why I am confident the legislation violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14^th Amendment.  I wouldn’t expect Capital editorial writers to have more than a grade school understanding of the law.  But I would expect them to have read legislation they are editorializing about.