Do you have a First Amendment right to somebody else's vote?
File this under bogus theories of the law:
An official in a small tourist town sued his colleagues Friday, saying they're unfairly targeting him for recall over his refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at board meetings.
Estes Park town trustee David Habecker, who describes himself as agnostic, says the words "under God" in the pledge violate his religious beliefs and are at odds with the separation of church and state, according to his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.
The lawsuit says Habecker exercises his First Amendment right to religious freedom and sits during Town Board meetings while other members recite the pledge.
Habecker's recall election is scheduled for Feb. 15.
Mr. Habecker is suing the town, the recall committee and the board of trustees, and has asked a federal judge to stop the recall. There's just one problem: the basis of his suit is a non-justiciable political question. He does indeed have a First Amendment right to refrain from reciting any or all of the Pledge. But citizens, acting in their capacity as voters, have no obligation to honor that right when evaluating the service of public officials. The First Amendment binds the Government; it doesn't bind your neighbors.
If the recall is an infringement of Mr. Habecker's constitutional rights, why wouldn't his defeat at the next regularly scheduled election also be an infrigement?