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Education
Fan-atics
to politicians being held in contempt or
reduced funding for the court.
“This could be downright nasty,’’ Tal-
madge said.
Democratic Sen. Jim Hargrove, one of the
budget writers in the Legislature, said it was
the court’s jurisdiction to find that the Leg-
islature wasn’t meeting its constitutional
ment through a spokeswoman. She had
written in the opinion that the court was
retaining jurisdiction in the case, in part,
because the court has made a promise to
schoolchildren that it will not stand idly by
while the Legislature makes unfulfilled
promises.
Justice James Johnson, the only dissent-
ing justice in the court’s latest
message to the Legislature,
has agreed that the court is
violating the constitution.
“Put simply, the founders
did not intend for this court to
act in such a role and, more
importantly, prohibited exer-
cise of such self-granted
power,’’ Johnson wrote.
Talmadge noted that in
decades past, the Supreme
Court often had members
with past experience in the
Legislature or managing state government,
providing justices with the perspective of
the practical impacts of their decisions. That
isn’t the case with the current justices, he
said.
Talmadge doesn’t necessarily think the
court is overstepping its authority, but he
says the justices seem to be getting close.
“This is really uncharted waters,’’ he said.
Baumgartner has proposed a
bill that would shrink the court
from nine justices to five,
acknowledging that it was
partially an attempt to push
back against the decision
responsibility on education. But he said he
sees separation-of-power problems with the
court’s approach of describing detailed
budget numbers when the court doesn’t
have staff to handle budget issues.
“They got specific in ways that weren’t
even accurate,’’ Hargrove said.
Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, who wrote
the latest McCleary order, declined to com-
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
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Hundreds of hardcore Seahawks fans showed up in the rain, Wednesday,
Jan. 29 at Seattle Center to show their support for the team. The 25’ x 35’
12th Man flag which has been flying atop the Space Needle during the
playoff run, was brought down and fans were given an opportunity to sign
it. The flag will then been delivered from the “Needle to New Jersey” in
time for the Superbowl.
Vote
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Eastern Washington who have seen the pop-
ulation change and election outcomes stay
the same,’’ said David Perez, a Seattle attor-
ney who helped write the bill.
Like the Washington Dream Act, which
expands state college financial aid to stu-
dents illegally in the country, the Voting
Right Act is a priority for minority advo-
cates and their allies. But unlike the finan-
cial aid measure, the Voting Rights Act
doesn’t enjoy bipartisan support. Last year,
when the House passed it, one Democrat
joined the Republicans in opposing it.
Walla Walla Republican Rep. Maureen
Walsh, who voted in favor of the Dream Act
, says minority candidates face challenges
in Central and Eastern Washington.
“Can we legislate prejudice out of people?
No,’’ she said.
Walsh hopes minority candidates will fare
better as communities in Central and East-
ern Washington become more integrated.
And she doesn’t think lawmakers in Eastern
Washington are ignoring the needs of their
constituents.
But Perez said opponents of the Voting
Rights Act and Dream Act will eventually
have to answer to a growing Latino popula-
tion, which in total numbers has become a
majority in some small counties in Eastern
This short legislative session is shaping into a
bipartisan stall, where measures from opposite
chambers aren’t going anywhere
“I don’t perceive that the Hispanic popu-
lation is not having their voice heard by the
people in government that represent them,’’
she said.
Washington. Opposing the measures now is
planting seed for challenges in the future,
Perez said.
“You’re going to alienate pockets of the
Her bill is set for a public hearing on
Wednesday before the House Public Safety
Committee.
Tom McBride, executive secretary of the
Washington Association of Prosecuting
Attorneys, said his group supports the study
that will be seen,’’ he said.
“If our concern is getting to the truth, let’s
test any potentially significant items at the
time we are evaluating all evidence — not
mandate saving a single piece of evidence
for review later,’’ he said in an email.
population that are growing every day,’’ he
said. “They’re going to have to look at folks
in the eyes and tell them they voted not to
give them more representation.’’
Perez said the issue is systemic problem
that goes beyond Eastern Washington
towns. Local offices, like school board and
city council positions, often serve as spring-
boards to higher offices in Olympia and
elsewhere. But if minorities have additional
challenges getting elected to those offices,
then the pipeline is not created.
Matt Barreto, a University of Washington
professor and pollster, said the Voting
Rights Act could be used as a rally point for
elections if there is more publicity done
around it, much like the backers of the
Dream Act have done so for the past few
years.
Evidence
Washington is among eight states where
evidence is not automatically preserved
proposed in the bills but does not support
the moratorium.
He said the language of the bill applies to
any item that may include a touch of DNA
evidence, ranging from vehicles to broken
glass that may later be ruled out of a case.
As a result, “the commitment of scarce
resources is greater than the actual benefit
Darneille, D-Tacoma, said she under-
stands the concerns of the prosecutors but
thinks critics are “overly cautious that this is
going to create a burden of work without
proving that it’s a burden of work.’’
The DNA preservation bills are House
Bill 2468 and Senate Bill 6310.
January 29, 2014
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The Innocence Project Northwest said
most states have varying laws on how long
to preserve biological evidence.
Washington is among eight states where
evidence is not automatically preserved.
Once convicted, defendants must file
motions to have evidence preserved for use
during possible appeals, said Lara
Zarowsky, policy director for Innocence
Project Northwest.
Jurisdictions within the state of Washing-
ton have different preservation rules, and
Zarowsky said there is no guarantee that
DNA evidence will be available for testing
if cases are appealed.
“If DNA is going to serve this really vital
role in our criminal justice system, as it
should, then we need to preserve the evi-
dence,’’ she said.
Orwall, D-Des Moines, said she was sur-
prised to learn about inconsistency in how
DNA is handled after a conviction.
“It could make the difference in someone
being exonerated or remaining in prison,’’
she said.
What do you think?
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