‘A giant bucket of unconstitutionality’: Attorney challenging WA sheriff law says it won’t survive in court

A judge partially blocked Washington’s new sheriff standards law last month. Now the attorney representing the sheriffs is laying out why he believes it won’t survive court.

Attorney Joel Ard described the law as “a giant bucket of unconstitutionality” on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Senate Bill 5974 allows the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) to revoke certification for misconduct, triggering automatic removal from office for elected sheriffs. It also sets new professional standards for sheriffs and police chiefs.

Ard pointed to one of the questions posed in the new screening: Are you a member of any extremist groups?

“Nobody knows what an extremist group is,” he said. “I think we can guess it, in the eyes of the beholder, but the Biden administration said that people who went to traditional Latin Mass were extremists.”

Ard also noted there is already a removal provision in the state constitution for removing elected officers, and this new law is not part of it. He said to remove someone from office, there has to be a petition.

“It has to have a suitable statement of wrongdoing that can be tested in court. You’ve got to collect a lot of signatures, you’ve got to get them on the ballot, and this is just a different thing,” Ard said.

How the WA sheriff law rewrites the rules

He explained that under the old law, if someone who was not a certified law enforcement officer was elected sheriff, they had 12 months to go through training and become certified. Now, Ard said, sheriff candidates must be certified before they can run, have at least five years of continuous law enforcement experience, and pass a background check that includes social media reviews and a review of any affiliations with extremist organizations, as defined by the state commission.

“None of this is defined, and we’re all going to give it to a group of appointees,” he said.

Ard reiterated that the CJTC is made up of a bunch of gubernatorial appointees in Olympia who now have the power to pull sheriffs from office. He also noted there is no pre-screening for legislative candidates, as there is for sheriffs.

When asked if he thinks his case will win in court, Ard responded, “Absolutely.”

“We’re right, isn’t that all it takes?” he added.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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