Los Alamos sheriff candidate Greg White
Los Alamos resident Greg White, a candidate for Los Alamos County Sheriff, filed a brief in the Supreme Court this week asking why the Court “refused to do its constitutionally-mandated, authorized, ministerial and non-discretionary duty to order Gov. Susana Martinez to do hers”.
The brief was filed July 17 in a case in which White attempted to have the Court mandate that Martinez appoint a Los Alamos County councilor to take the place of former Councilor James Chrobocinski who resigned June 1 citing to health issues.
The Court denied the request as well as a petition from White to rehear the case and Los Alamos County Council appointed Morrie Pongratz to fill the vacancy.
White’s latest brief states that he does not request “a long extremely detailed explanation for denial as has often been given” by the Court. He “simply needs to understand as do more than half the citizens of Los Alamos what shortfalls were in his writ request”.
White asks the Court to “put themselves in his shoes for a moment”. He claims local elected and appointed officials refuse to follow any laws as well as the results of elections.
“The Governor refuses to follow the Constitution as well as repeatedly over the years vetoes every unanimous legislative attempt to give Los Alamos citizens relief. And now the highest court in the land refuses to consider relief with no explanation. Can this court understand the frustration of seeming to live in ‘a nation of laws’ and yet these laws and ‘Constitution seem not worth the paper they are printed on,” he states.
White’s motion says that as a veteran, he “mourns all the blood spilled by our service men and women to guarantee our freedom and liberties established by law, but which appears to be totally pointless as in so much case law it is the government who rules the people and polices itself in opposite to the founding principles of that government”.
He goes on to state that, “The citizens are said to govern in our State Constitution. This Court has said, ‘it seems fundamental that a citizen has the right to hold their elected officials accountable’. Yet repeatedly through ‘rules of procedure’, time and again citizens are denied a voice let alone justice because of a technicality in the way something was done, and the merits of their case are never considered
White stated that he thinks it is “high time for ‘rules’ to be overhauled so as to give meaning to the shed blood of citizens to not be trampled on by those, so many of those, in government who take and take the benefits of our country and state but do not have the courage to put their life on the line to defend this great state and country”.
