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Franklin Tea Party to host Constitution crash course
The U.S. Constitution is at the forefront of political debate across the country. To help weed through some of the rhetoric, the Franklin Parish Tea Party is hosting a Constitution forum Friday.
The forum, presented by Kevin A. Unter, assistant professor of political science at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, will take place 7 p.m. at the Franklin Parish Courthouse and is being billed as a crash course on the Constitution.
"I hear a lot of people talking about what's constitutional and what's unconstitutional. Dr. Unter is going to go over every point in the Constitution so we can know what it does say," said Glen Williams, an organizer for the Franklin Parish Tea Party.
Members of the Franklin Parish Tea Party are invited to meet at the courthouse an hour before the Constitution forum to help set down some bylaws for the organization, Williams said.
The forum will be the second event held by the Franklin Parish Tea Party, a local grassroots organization that Williams, a Democrat and former state representative for District 20, recently helped form.
On April 15, more than 100 people met at the courthouse for a Tea Party rally to protest what they say is government overspending and overreaching of Constitutional limits.
Several similar rallies were held on Tax Day by Tea Party chapters in cities throughout Louisiana including Metairie, Bossier City, Lake Charles and Ruston.
The Tea Party movement has caught fire nationwide over the last year, with tens of thousands of people reportedly turning out for some rallies on April 15.
While groups don't align themselves with political parties, a recent national survey by the Winston Group shows the national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democrat. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 percent are moderate and eight percent say they are liberal.
Local residents are gathering to voice their views and discuss the Constitution and there is movement in Baton Rouge to block new federal heath care laws on Constitutional ground.
Attorney General James D. Buddy Caldwell, acting on the wishes of Gov. Bobby Jindal, has entered Louisiana in a multi-state lawsuit opposing the new law.
In the legislature, State Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, has authored SB-26, the Louisiana Health Care Freedom Act in the ongoing 2010 Regular Session, to nullify the law in Louisiana. The bill is currently assigned to the Senate Finance Committee. |
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