State representative explains why he didn’t applaud State Supreme Court members

A state representative who snubbed members of the State Supreme Court during the State of the State Address tells KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz he did it for good reason.

“What we have never accepted in this country is that a court could take over writing the budget, determining tax policy and that is what they’ve done in Washington. It’s unconstitutional. It’s arrogant. It’s ignorant and I chose not to stand up to highlight that inappropriate behavior,” says State Representative Matt Manweller.

When the nine members of the court entered the chamber, Manweller refused to stand with everyone else, refused to clap, and refused to even look at them because of their decision to hold the Legislature in contempt for refusing to fund education under the court’s McCleary decision.

“What I was protesting is not the decision in its specifics but the fact that they chose to litigate a rule from a bench in an area of law in which they have no jurisdiction and no authority,” says Manweller.

In the McCleary decision, the court said that the state had consistently failed to provide ample funding for education. But Manweller says the education budget is none of the court’s business.

And as a political Science Professor at Central Washington University, he says he couldn’t let that pass.

“My friends on the left love protests when it’s the 1 percent movement or the Ferguson protest. The extent of my protest was to sit quietly. I didn’t interrupt the proceedings. I didn’t make noise. I didn’t do anything that drew attention to myself.”

However, Manweller admits he was hoping reporters would notice and call him to talk about it.

“I think I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do, which was to say, hey citizens, I think we all should just take a moment and think about what is happening in your state where you have one branch of government usurping power that you, the citizens, never gave them. So I am happy just by the very fact The Seattle Times wrote about it and you and I are talking about it.”

As for the effect the court’s contempt citation is likely to have on the Legislature? He says most of the members will likely ignore it.

“There are many people on both sides of the political aisle, both Republicans and Democrats, who believe the court has acted absolutely inappropriately. I just happened to be the only person to make more of a formal statement about it.”

Manweller says it’s not that legislators are going to ignore funding for education.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to increase funding for education, but we’re going to do it along the lines of what the people who elected us want us to do.”

While the justices are elected officials, too, Manweller says they don’t represent all the people. In fact, as far as he can tell, they just represent Seattle liberals.

“The court is the one area where basically everybody can live in Queen Anne and still serve on the same body. They know they can go out and rule any way they want. All of their elections are uncontested, nobody follows what the court does, and so they know they’re untouchable and unaccountable.”