Americans for Prosperity issue urgent plea of support for Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby!

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 30, 2012 Americans for Prosperity today launched an effort to encourage citizens to contact Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby and tell him to continue standing up for the rights of the taxpayers, as he did in his recent case upholding taxpayers’ rights to sue their government.  AFP-NC is investing an unprecedented $250,000 on a citizen education and grassroots effort that will include one million pieces of direct mail. You can click here to view the mailer. This is the largest judicial issue advocacy effort ever by Americans for Prosperity in any one of the organization’s 34 state chapters and affiliates. The mailer is being delivered to one million households this week to educate citizens on Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby’s role in upholding the rights of everyday taxpayers to sue the government over the unconstitutional misuse or misappropriation of tax dollars.  The mailer also encourages citizens to contact Justice Newby and urge him to continue upholding taxpayer rights. The caseGoldston v. Statebefore the state's highest court presented complicated facts, but it is a simple issue—can taxpayers have their day in court to challenge the misuse of the public's money? The case was a challenge to raids of the Highway Trust Fund by Governor Easley and the Democrat-controlled legislature. “The majority opinion said it best when it said,‘Our cases demonstrate that a taxpayer has standing to bring an action against appropriate government officials for the alleged misuse or misappropriation of public funds.’” said Woodhouse.  “The decision means the government can’t abuse taxpayers and then say that taxpayers have no right to challenge the matter in court.” In 2002, Governor Easley raided $80 million from the Highway Trust Fund and the legislature took another $125 million.  The plaintiffs were a Democrat and a Republican--one a former state senator, the other a former secretary of transportation. When the governor and legislature raided the Highway Trust Fund to pay for general fund expenses, those taxpayers took a stand.  Although lower courts shot down their right to bring the case, Justice Newby and fellow members of the majority of the Supreme Court held that they, like every other taxpayer, have a right to challenge the constitutionality of government's misuse of tax dollars.