# 20 John A. Fleming January 6, 2003

Oath of Office is ignored and defaced by certain State Officials.

Over the past several years the Washington Utilities and Transportation
Commission (WUTC) has held hearings and issued findings that involved
Indian tribal governments and their taxing and regulating certain citizens
of this state. This writer submitted a request to that Commission to re
think holding such a hearing and to requse itself from further hearings
where tribal governments represent themselves as a legitimate government.
This request involved docket no. UG-021502, involving the Yakama tribe and
a number of utilities firms and is in the record of the hearing. The
following is a portion of that request.

It is clear that the Commission can not make a judgment on the legality of
the tribal tax but, it is equally clear the Commission must assure that
the status of parties before it and the elements of the issues and
requests must meet U.S. Constitutional standards and be within the limits
of that authority as well as the authority given that Commission by the
Washington Constitution. By the mere action of your Commission proceeding
in this matter you are telling the world that all of these conditions are
met.

In this matter the Constitution only allows governments to tax for a
public purpose and to spend the tax revenues for public purposes. In this
case the Yakama tribal utility tax is neither levied nor expended for
public purposes; rather, it is collected for and spent on tribal projects
and purposes - non tribal members are excluded from the vast number of
uses for such expenditures. A second fault is also in action here
concerning the status of the Yakama Tribal government - it is not
republican in form and thus its existence within our State and appearance
in front of your Commission asking to be treated like a legitimate
government is repugnant to Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution
and an affront to the citizens of this State. The Yakama tribal government
is a pretend government in the most classical sense. Please note the
following.

The source of this quote is the Washington Attorney General's Office and
is found in Washington v. Whitefoot, Flintknife & Selam, Washington
State's complaint for Declaratory Injunctive Relief, U.S. District,
Eastern District of WA, re tribal liquor resolutions, September 2001, from
Section IV, Summary of Facts, #11
***** "The non-Tribal members have no voice in the governance or policy
decisions of the Yakama Tribe, are not permitted to serve on juries in
Tribal court or attend meetings of the Tribal Council, and receive little,
if any, services from the Yakama tribes."

The WUTC has the above information in several earlier communication, that
this writer is aware of, and yet it continues to treat tribal governments
as legitimate. Turning a blind eye to our Constitutions Article IV,
Section 4, is a violation of their individual oath of office. Here is what
a noted Jurist writes about this subject. "Sworn to obey that written
constitution, the officer who violates it must stand convicted of a
perjured usurpation of authority." (Page 68, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE
UNITED STATES, by John Randolph Tucker, ISBN 0-8377-1206-8)

A brief review of Federal Indian Programs since the 1924 Indian
Citizenship Act was past, demonstrates a number of unconstitutional end
results from those programs that include (but not limited to) pretend
governments being recognized as legitimate and taxation and regulation
(governmentally) without representation. These constitutional violations
have and continue to exist because those required to take the oath of
office , as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution (Article VI, Section 4 )
have failed to obey that oath.