The Process IS the Punisment. Spartanburg, County and Its Ex Post Facto Zoning Ordinance
“No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.” ~Article I, Section 9, Clause 3, U.S. Constitution
“No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.” ~Article I, Section 9, Clause 3, U.S. Constitution
(Dixie Drudge) - It is a time-honored principle of American law that governments cannot criminalized something that has already been done. The founders cared so much about this principle and government’s past abuse of citizens using this well-rehearsed method of tyranny that they enshrined it in the US Constitution. Not just once, but TWICE.
The above mentioned Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 dealt with the federal government. Article 1, Section 10 concerned the Powers Prohibited to the States. Last time I looked, Spartanburg County is in South Carolina, which in spite of earlier efforts is still one of the US States:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
The 30x50 foot flag installed at great expense by Adam Washington Bellenger Sons of Confederate Veterans has been flying on the Teaberry Road property overlooking I-85, near Business I-85 and Highway 221, since 22 October 2022. At that time there were no codes or ordinances restricting the flag pole’s installation. According to the 1999 Land Use Ordinance, no permits were required. Immediately, certain parties in Spartanburg County, particularly County Councilman Monier Abusaft, the lone Black member of the council and the Spartanburg Chapter of the NAACP, decided it must come down at all costs.
The result has been a campaign waged against county citizens, using county tax funds, which are apparently inexhaustible, to deny the members of the local SCV camp of their 1st Amendment rights. On 27 October 2022, the County enacted a ‘Performance Zoning Ordinance’ which limited the height of flagpoles to 30 feet. Notice that this was mere days after the flag pole was installed, but it was still AFTER, the very definition of an ex post facto law. On Jan. 31 of last year, even the Board of Zoning Appeals voted 5-3 to overturn the Planning Department's notice that the flagpole was in violation because a permit was not obtained before erecting it.
Of course, that did nothing to stop the activist Judge Mark Hayes II ordering its removal. This case will be appealed further up the chain yet again and again. The SCV camp will prevail, but it will take years and cost a lot of money. The process IS the punishment. We’ve seen it many times. Some petty tyrant decides he is big sh1t, determines he can use other peoples money to outlast the people he dislikes, and brings the forces of government to bear.
Notice that Monier Abusaft and the Spartanburg Chapter of the NAACP do not care so much about this issue that they are willing to finance the campaign of ethnic cleansing out of their own pocket books.
There was a huge Battle Flag on I-10 as soon as you entered Bama from Mississippi