Editor:
My letter of March 28 did not mention gun laws and was not about the Second Amendment of our Bill Of Rights. At issue, for me, was Sheriff Spruell's personal "manifesto" claiming that he had certain, personal discretionary authority over laws legally enacted by our state legislatures and signed by our governors. By inference, he also claimed that he had authority to determine if a law was or was not "constitutional" in accord with his oath of office.
In my opinion, he is totally wrong on both counts. Even an elementary search into the history of constitutional jurisprudence shows conclusively, via precedent cases extending back over 200 years, that constitutional law and its interpretation is the closely held, exclusive domain of federal court. Period. No county sheriff in all of the United States is given authority to determine what is or is not constitutional. Period.
I invite Sheriff Spruell to come forward with his "legal brief" and show where in the total volume of Colorado state code he finds authority to set aside, on his own prerogative and without due process, any law he so chooses. Show us, citizens of the county and registered voters, how you have determined that you have the expertise and authority to determine if any law is or is not constitutional. This is not about gun laws; this is about the sheriff and the law.
H. C. Petley
Cortez
