who pass our bikes around and so i'm bill but again look but again law firm here in seattle or in seattle of twenty eight years and would be glad to take any comments or questions or case issues that you might have you can tax background checks background finance background and expert on everything extraordinary if you say so i love that i won't disagree tend to be fairly left of center thank you legal developments legislation and cultural changes all taking place in front of us this is a this is it any movement that captures the imagination and conversations americans across the whole country you know we have seen it first but i see it is this country first in the concept of really talking about what we're going to do here in america but it is it is going on around the world and there's occupy cities all around the world now but the concept that you're seeing you're seeing change happen in front of you and that's why i find it very fascinating and interesting and it does impact a lot and it impacts society and and why we're doing this show tonight because frankly the other people that aren't downtown and these various towns and whatnot occupy and have a lot of questions and and so tonight i want to talk about some of those and some of these legal issues and where all this is going but one of the first things i want to talk about is the practical aspects of occupy an thought from your experience with all of you here from what's happening in seattle can you talk of let's let's talk a lot about just about numbers of people on an average day how many people are involved in occupy seattle actually  were and that's what the average american is trying to find out about because we see things on t v we see clips and and but there's there's there are there are support systems behind all that and movements like this ha from four to twenty five at a at a given time depending on the location when we were outside with a big you know pink umbrella that said demands then there was a lot lot more people to come and join to talk you know when when the group said online well there is a specific time that the workgroup will meet usually four o'clock four thirty five all the day and then often times send somebody the general somebody to report but you can discuss with the other people on line you know that made you know we had a big discussion the demands were group about how to make that accessible you know we talk about bringing computers down so that people who were didn't have access to them could we could cover as much so that issues still unresolved globalization i've done some amazing things i think you know the demands work group put together the proposal for the seattle city council we took it to them fifty people showed up and they voted unanimously to not only support the movement but to move their money out of the gangster bank and actually from a conservative financial viewpoint i think that was a pretty good great move because the financial banks are in distress the big ones and the local ones are bringing the money back and you have extra tax dollars as well so that's the way i looked at it and i think the council without the action should've done it anyways but  honestly you'd have like a lot of black communication and a lot of things that could happen that happens just because they're on either side of you know just for whatever reasons mostly you know cultural or you know whatever it was that you know definitely definitely some some because the tension between the people the big there is an interesting tension between the occupiers and the supporters and people who are driving along and all of a sudden their way to their daughter's recitals is blocked by by by protesters and you know it's interesting professor has more talks about out not much action is being done but and to make the show interesting you know one of the things you know of those of us who worked in the workgroups is we didn't see people from the encampments joining the work groups and joining the process and joining the general assembly and and and i you know i remember one one famous day where the whole general assembly voted to accept the mayor's proposal to move down to the city hall from westlake and then later the general assembly was after all of the main support it was was changed and you know the hardcore s you know the campers changed it and reversed that decision which in the end turned out to be kind of prescient because the that was an act of a protest staying there and you guys are the brave ones you guys are the ones i can afford to go get arrested  single dad you know where you guys are the ones out there doing an act of civil disobedience and for cuts they are acting like you they're calling you domestic terrorists they're calling us domestic terrorists for pitching a tent somewhere and we have you know banks are stealing billions and just have the visibility without the people going down there every day and being willing to have you know seven hours with your hands in zip ties behind your back while you're on your knees beside yourself you know this is terrible well one of the things that someone who basically was on the outside but floated it out of the light implode in and out of petrol as somebody who very much supported it and would ask questions and everything but it was more representative of the general public and their coming lot of steam because you weren't you know generally although there were issues certainly surrounding availability of education and higher education that was that what started out as and then all of a sudden you're up in a different part of town not that far away but the people like bank of america and chase and what have you were suddenly let off the hook and i know the bank of america because they got so much bad publicity from occupy wall street to them from grazing their we're all over the you tube and when they how much support communities and how much we support the homeless and the downtrodden matter what we did to make them homeless that it was a very cynical attempt to buy some good p r and it always seemed very odd could understand why they would let you can't down there and that you have to you can no way that would be arrested what have you but it seemed rather weird that during the daytime when business was being you know done that you didn't have at least fifteen or twenty people down there every day and with like protesting then you go simply go home at night because business is shut down anyway and you know they can't sit there and say you're camping out you're not no you don't have the toilets or whatever down  can scream with you know hygiene issues and it would have seemed to be a certainly from the outside a more strategically smart move because you're there where you're supposed to be keeping the spotlight on the people who are really the problem and you know and then basically going back to your camp if i didn't you know girding your purely points for the battle the next day and i remember the day i was there when we marched from west like to seattle central community college i marched with that group and when we got they were expected to be running into this address and what you were talking about we expected to run into opposition because the president of s e c c had said no we got there to a faculty welcome committee when they came out and said the students and faculty  convinced the president to change his mind and we got a letter some support from twenty six businesses in the area saying we support this now i think we're really dealing with the with that with us i think we've got an example bucket or something we've got people planting in there going around pooping on things and then filming it and then saying these people put on things and out and giving out to fox news to have that be the entire story of occupy seattle as people put out things you know what you know what you know i mean part of the big problem is  when there was a peace and safety forum do you didn't you said you never attended a forum so you didn't attend any of the pieces so i thought i thought it was tried when i went to it wasn't there so that brings up the question is there a committee to resolve disputes between but say that also turned it to an outside viewer who was a man on the ground doing anything but just sitting at home watching they would listen to this whole conversation and say it sounds like they need a leader if that's really what they would protesting doing it for you know you know what but what did i say i guess most americans would say out of a movement somebody come out maybe not one person maybe it's a group or maybe it's something that somebody is going to emerge as leading that because at some point someone's going to have somebody's going to step up and be recognized as someone who can put a face to this and about what the going to do and then it was people like like these guys who in the workrooms to talk about we do not have a leaders you're not a spokesman you can be a reporter even when i've done radio things or this i've always said you know i'm reporting on this i'm not a spokesman or the face of but leaders can be know ridicule you know and and i remember when the mayor of denver told the protesters there that they need that he wanted them to elect a leader to go talk to them so they elected this guy's are right it was really frustrating because a lot of people would come through because there was no information booth argue i see a worker last week three people came in looking for somebody to donate some jeans you were offered jobs to kids or thing to the seattle city council you know i was the one that printed it up on a piece of paper and put the logo on there and handed it to them and then then two later we have fifty people from occupying the place and that's i think the strength of it is is that leaderless ness allows each of us to step in you know push the whole philosophy than the person that looking at you or they just don't like maybe some something in your history they may they may totally not support you not not not and not work with you th thank you eighty from ohio the only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere that atmosphere is not justified many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on monday he said the sky would fall the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day another couple thousand a second day and if you members were even told that there would be martial law in america if we voted no that's what i call fear mongering unjustified proven wrong we've got a week we've got two weeks to write a good he says do you work for the government would you say it is all your life and i thought it might be incredible to hear about constitutional washington see in the background appear to have the honor of a well respected member of the local  the constitution of the united states of america great document that we all live by and are regulated by our society going to tie it in as much as i can to issues regarding the states and our  our freedoms as individuals and what we reserved to the federal government not reserved to the states governments and our constitution and we can't just cut through all of the parts of the constitution read this is an overview it's a quick overview and it gives you a good sense of the breath of what's in our united states constitution tonight i want to start with the preamble i it's just a beautiful entrance into the constitution and we should all be very proud of it we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union establish justice insure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity to do more dame and the state police this constitution for the united states of america what a great entrance so the first section representatives and to the senate and generally most people know that the house of representatives around four hundred thirty five representatives and they're based on population soledad states with more population have more representatives and we do a census every ten years that shakes things up and some states game representatives and stem states lose representatives and then the senate has two senators per state regardless of the population and most people  congress says the congress of the power to lay and collect taxes duties imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the united states but credit of the united states and then these days where our debt is so large and we seem to have a debt crisis every six to eight months when the government runs out of money and things start to shut down this is an important part of congress to have to lay and taxes losing deductions closing loopholes it's a very it's a very very interesting time in our lives now and and at the very end of two thousand and eleven going to two thousand and twelve election and as you know all the discussion about  maybe having a flat tax on everyone at x percent of income and excluding giving exceptions for people with so little income and then maybe that flat tax if the question is great the greatest income people should that number be so it's a very exciting time but that's part of congress too to make those make those laws commerce with foreign nations rules of natural relation that's the immigration issue that's really controversial status in banks you know the bank bad code and all the federal laws of bollywood mortgages and the sale of securities and and all of these things that are so post office and all of these types of thing postop is there you go over the topic they're talking about not having weekend collection and delivery they're talking about cutting and cutting back and they're talking about maybe the post office should go away and and a service such as deliver mail or packages and whatnot should be solely left up to private enterprise because of the huge losses on believable losses that the post office is undergoing right now some of these are  of course started our country one of the big fights was over taxes and representation without taxing taxation without representation and all those types of issues so you'll see quite a few things in the constitution about taxes and and relationships between the states and foreign powers and things like that because they have such great concerns when this country was formed sometime talks about restrictions upon the powers of states our constitution talking about what powers we leave t selected what powers the president has and the duties of the president and i do impeach a president and i'm going to skip through those and move around article three because those powers of president are are well known and well spoken about and there's not much controversy consent of congress without going through a law and when can he do it and and the controversy there constantly comes up is the president's power to get involved in conflicts outside of the united states and whether he does relate to what my focus is what i say the focus of the evening is about how the federal government relates to states and individuals and the power of the federal government over states and over individuals because that's not only as they were topic of mine but that it spills into so many issues right now of what the federal government and its agencies can do versus state state power so the article section  article three talks about judicial power and the judicial power of the united states shall be vested in one supreme court and in such inferior courts as the congress make from time to time make that's our that's our courts of appeals  it's the circuit courts around our country for the federal court system the supreme court of the top the courts of appeals below bad and below bad well the court of appeals is the district courts the u s district courts throughout the throughout the country there's also special courts that that power was was given to set up like patent or tax courts or some of those but but the main focus is our federal judicial system the supreme court on top appeals right below that and the district courts below bad so section two talks about jurisdiction and the jurisdiction is the judicial power to hear cases shall extend to all cases in  bad multi and maritime jurisdiction and to controversies in which the united states shall be a party so whenever the united states is either the initiating party or being sued those are going to be in the federal court system generally  controversies between two or more states so when states have a controversy those can be resolved in the federal court system because states being more or less sovereign governments of their of their own they're like they're  equal there's no we can't when and when california has a dispute with the board there are very all states in this union and equal for that and they can go to the federal court system to get those resolved because to resolve it in either just decent and between citizens of the same state claiming lands on the grants of different different states or from the federal government so when when citizens of different states have controversies that can go to the federal system because if be given in each state to the public acts records and judicial proceedings i have every other state and the congress may by general was prescribe the manner in which such acts like in some proceeding shall be proved and the well this is really important because when we created this great you know at least individual states and we found them together we we wanted to make sure that they were on an equal footing that that decisions from the courts and new york would be given for all faith and credit to be followed when the parties or that that was that decision from new york one way or another comes in and has to be enforced in another state so it senator from the beginning that that new hampshire was not going to be just overshadowed by california or texas just because of the number of people in those various states or maybe the wealth of those states  the industry that they have for things like that so the second section talks about privileges and immunities citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states again  authority of the united states shall be the supreme law of the land and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby anything in the constitution or allows of any state to the contrary not withstanding so the constitution those first ten amendments to the constitution are our bill of rights and they spell out what what people are really talking about freedom of speech and freedom of association and freedom of religion and  and power to bear arms the right to bear arms and all of these things those are spelled out in the amendments but the actual constitution itself ends in article seven and here we are at the end of it we're talking about the supremacy clause that says that the constitution and those amendments and i include in that includes our bill of rights and as of the united states that you that congress makes in pursuit pursuant to the constitution  in the constitution as that set up is that that the supreme court the u s supreme court when it makes the decision that's president for all but federal system and it makes a decision about our us constitution and our u does that affect all citizens united states that decision is the supreme law of the land as well there is no one higher authority than the sprint u s supreme court it would take another congressional law to a new law to try to change something that the court made in the court then could actually rule on whether that new law was consistently made so we're back to back to this article six of the constitution on the as well as of the supreme u s constitution frames how we work as we do our government our federal government works and putting its structure together in running this country and it and it lays out a framework for how  legislators get elected how the president gets elected and it talks about the court system being set up and then attacks about powers of the various levels of government and and you know the checks and balances that that that are often discussed  the the more technical problem is when we have disputes between states and disputes your tween states and the federal government kind of who wins out in one of those laws work and so for example right now in seattle we've been having investigation by the by the federal government through the f b i and the justice supported through that and most primarily justice department investigate in our seattle police department because of allegations that they are violating constitutional rights of us citizens here in seattle and some of the and some of the ways they've been acting you know our system is set up that that i was system works it's speak say we don't want this intrusion they're not our washington state government and our national laws that they're looking at and they also argue that they're not even aware that seattle laws should affect and rule how we are police conduct is supposed to be and but that's not true we have these constitution we have the u s constitution and our constitutional rights and our bill of rights  above all of that and our states need to conform to that now the states can issue laws that are give us more protections more freedoms greater than what the u s constitution gives but it can't go the other way and take away those rights that we have in our u s constitution and so there is this there's this area where it is going to grind when the federal level is is interacting with the state level and you you have this this jurisdictional that is power over certain topics and people you have this jurisdictional battle going on but this is why we set up the system to work this way we set up the system such that the federal government to enforce our constitution and preserve our constitutional rights would have this power over the various states so that the and and and and get in an equal position with the other states and one of the ways of doing that as we would is the beauty of our federal government over all of us  d i know that grinds to certain people now let's talk about these occupy movements and they're all over the world now and how that relates beliefs everything we're talking about tonight our constitution is our bedrock as we as americans we are constantly going back and checking abuses or checking any one any one's argument that something is wrong legally or something is evil or something is going wrong in our world we are always checking that against our constitution and our constitutional rights because that's what makes this whole system work and in the  occupy wall street occupy seattle occupy chicago all these cities there's there's a current discussion about individual rights as it relates to the ninety nine percent versus the one percent by also ninety nine or one hundred percent versus corporations and then there's this whole argument that goes behind that and says that governments are  in play and you know wherever you live you end up on the spectrum the political thought about all of this the good thing is it's our constitution and our constitutional rights is what allows us to free speech to discuss these ideas it allows us the political freedom to look at our own institutions to examine our relationships between entities that we are that are creatures of the state  corporations were or are creatures of the state because they have to be incorporated and and have to get powers and i thought it was from laws that that states have put in place and and what i'm saying is that we that thank god we can discuss these issues where someone can seattle in a peaceful nonviolent public way and not hopefully not disturbing private property or the liberties of others or or their  their health and welfare of the others and why and yet still speak out and yet still see change the only ways to siamese grow for the good is if is if people  stand up and be counted and so my last thought on all of these things is that we have an election coming up this next week and i encourage you to think about all the various issues and center about stem that i know it's not the big year election but the powers that we have as individuals and making our choices for government and for all these initiatives that are before us that that's a great thing and that's what what makes our democracy work and you can contact me at any time with any legal question that info at is that your hope for what this is going to do for for america that it's good for them more than anything else going to educate people to what they're up against we have to do that and with contamination of the essence re are seeing the f now trying to take away the free internet i remember i remember the time i grew up over there and i remember the shrinking of the print media