Jim Shekleton in an enlightened and reasonable man.

I saw this bill earlier in the year in the paper, and I gave the article to my wife because I thought she might need to laugh.

It is “An Act to  prohibit acts of terrorism against persons engaged in a state university activity involving live animals.” But now, poor HB1078 has been killed. And thank God.  I believe the whole situation was summed up best by Rep. Charles Turbiville: “Commonsense tells me existing criminal code must cover every aspect of this.”

But Jim Shekleton, the SD Board of Regents Lawyer, had this to say:  “People who had been content to firebomb the facilities are now going after the workers because it’s more effective.”  Sorry?  When was the last firebombing of anything that occurred in South Dakota?  In other words, what makes this relevant at all in the face of legislation that already covers illegal activities such as:  assault, murder, trespassing, arson, vandalism, harassment, stalking, threats, etc.

Well, this is not the only time Mr. Shekleton has been bright and reasonable.  Last year,  HB 1261 was proposed, and for all those who immediately roll their eyes: take another look.  This bill did not make toting guns on campuses legal.  This bill did not arm crazies from the right.  This bill did stop a jurisdictional problem that we had, namely that the SD Board of Regents are shmucks, and do not have any right usurping the 2nd Amendment.

According to the Volante, here’s what Shekleton said on HB 1261

Jim Shekleton, state Board of Regents legal counsel, simply expressed concern for safety and says the bill is unnecessary. He said the bill is not fact-driven, but emotionally motivated.

“When college students are victims of violent crime, 93 percent of that is off campus. The likelihood of something happening is diminishingly small,” Shekleton said.

Those power-hungry folks at the SD BOR had indeed overstepped their bounds when they decided to strip students’ rights, without, apparently, checking with lawyers about what it’s like to circumvent the Bill of Rights.  I am curious about what Jim Shekleton thinks about the Bill of Rights, since he doesn’t seem to think that HB 1261 is “necessary.”

Two quotations should sum this issue up:

• “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” (Thomas Jefferson).
• “From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?” (from Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address).

So, it is the members of the Board of Regents who would dare attempt to stop students – who, by the way, are required to live on SD campuses during their first two years of their college education – from protecting themselves inside institutions that will instruct them on topics including the Constitution.  Rule by elite groups indeed.

This bill was completely jurisdictional; the SD BOR does not have the authority to deliver assessments on the rights that are protected by the Constitution; and on that note, I’m going to call my representatives right now to get this back in motion.