The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-07-04
The River Press.
Published every Wednesday, Morning
By the Rirer Press Publish
ing Company.
JUSTICE IN SILVER BOW.

JCSI1CE IN SlLN Elk bOV'
The peculiar political condition:
existing in Silver Bow county fire.
quently result in the election OF pub
lie officials who have very little ap'
probation of what is right, and who
have little regard for their oath Of
Office which requires them to enforce
the law. During the past few years.
the records OF Silver Bow courts and
other public departments have fur.
nished evidence of incapacity or some.
thing ors on the part Of those who
were elected to public positions OF
honor and responsibility.
The latest incident of this kind is
the refusal OF Silver Bows county
attorney to prosecute offenders who,
according to available testimony,
were guilty of violating a Montana
law. This delinquency on the part of
that public official is defended by him
with the allegation that the Law in
question is demonstrations al, although
no decision to that effect has been
made by the courts. In other words,
he arrogates to himself the functions
of a district court, q trial jury, and
the higher court to which an appeal
might be taken, and constitutes him.
self the whole thing.
The case at issue was that of men
who had been arrested on a charge of
ASSEMBLING an officer, while the latter
was attempting to raid q gambling
joint. The prosecuting attorney
moved that the case be dismissed be-
cause the law which the officer under.
took to enforce is unconstitutional.
This remarkable procedure in the ad.
ministratiou OF justice receives some
caustic and merited criticism from the
local press, the Anaconda Standard
making it the subject of these re-
marks:
County Attorney Healy seems not to
be content to be the prosecuting at
torney and the attorney for the defense
in the gambling cases in Silver Bow
county, but now seeks also to be the
district court, the supreme bench of
the state and the Interpreter of the
constitution Of the state. In a re.
document which he filed with
the clerk of the district court giving
the reasons why, in his opinion, he
should not be required to prosecute al
party for assaulting officers
who were raiding q gambling joint,
Mr.. Healy declares the statute to be
unlawful, unconstitutional and some
other things. The argument Of the
county attorney is that no officer OF
the law has a right, under the law, TO
break down doors In order to arrest
violators of the law, which means that
all gamblers and similar violators of
the law will have to do is to keep their
doors locked aud refuse a%dmittauce to
officers and then they cannot be pros.
ecuted.
It might not be out Of place to re-
mind County Attorney Healy that he
is paid by the people OF Silver Bow
county for prosecuting the v~iolators
OF the law, not for defending them:
that his sworn duty is to enforce the
law, not to interpret 1t. When the
people want him on the district bench
or on the supreme bench to pass upon
the constutionality of laws enacted by
the legislature of the state, they will
probably advance him to such posi-.
ton, but at present his duties are to
enforce the laws as he finds them.
1t will readily be conceded that MIR.
Healy is making u better record Us at
torney for violators OF the gambling
law than he is making as prosecutor
OF the viOlators Of the law, although II
is for prosecution, not for defense,
that the people r paying him. II
Mr.. Healy had worked one.tenth a.
hard in the endeavor to convict thOs.
who are breaking the law as he seeml
to be working in not prosecuting then
and in thinking up reasons why h,
doesn't want to prosecute, gambling
would have been etfectually stopped
in Butte months ago.