North Dakota statehood called into question

Grand Forks Herald ^ | July 13, 2011 | Ryan Johnson

[CalinectesSapidus]

North Dakota earned its star on the American flag on Nov. 2, 1889, becoming the 39th or 40th state as it was admitted to the union along with South Dakota — or maybe not.

Grand Forks resident John Rolczynski, 82, said he has discovered a flaw in North Dakota’s Constitution that he believes means the state is technically still a territory more than a century after its statehood was approved by Congress and authorized by the president.

He noticed the flaw on Jan. 31, 1995, and soon set out to notify judges, lawmakers and federal authorities, even sending a letter to President Bill Clinton, and said his concerns were largely ignored.

[NTHockey]

Just because everybody says something is right, doesn’t make it right. The Supreme Court has been wrong n so many cases that it is laughable to cite them as supreme anything (see Dred Scott, Roe v. Wade, Wickard v. Filburn, Kelo v. City of New London, etc.)

[FredZarguna]

Right. For example: Just because slave owners and their apologists claim the Civil War wasn't about slavery doesn't make it so. It was about slavery.

Just because slave masters and their apologists claim the cotton States had the "right" to secede, that doesn't make it so.

And of course, just because slave owners and their sympathizers claim West Virginia had no right to secede from Virginia (an interesting contradiction, since they think Virginia had the right to secede to begin with) that doesn't make it so, either.

But in fact, the people of West Virginia acted according to the US Constitution. The people of Virginia didn't. Saying they didn't doesn't make it right, either.