Do you recall that little dust-up out in California over the massive new gas tax they passed? It resulted in a recall effort to remove freshman state senator Josh Newman from office, along with a petition to repeal the tax hike. That prompted state Democrats to circle the wagons, going so far as to change the rules to make it much harder to gather the required signatures to recall any legislator. Normally that would be a dicey move in most other states because the same rules would be used against them, but hey… this is California. The Democrats control pretty much the entire government so they really don’t need to worry about it.

That apparently wasn’t enough for them, though. Since some of their constituents were uppity enough to actually attempt the recall, the state Democratic party decided to teach them a lesson once and for all. They’re suing a group of College Republicans for having the audacity to actually collect signatures. (Daily Wire)

Three members of the Cal State Fullerton College Republicans have been named in a lawsuit backed by the California Democratic Party in retaliation for their work to recall State Senator Josh Newman, who was the pivotal vote in support of April’s $52 Billion gas tax increase. The Democrats’ lawsuit, which was filed in Sacramento Superior Court last Thursday, alleges that the College Republicans and other conservative activists “misled” voters in their successful signature gathering effort to recall Senator Newman. The suit names Amanda McGuire, Brooke Paz, and Ryan Hoskins (pictured below) as defendants in the suit, for volunteering their weekends to talk to constituents about the cost of Newman’s vote to the district’s taxpayers.

In keeping with the rules, opponents of the massive tax hike gathered nearly 90,000 signatures in a matter of weeks just to get the initiative moving. Since the Democrats can’t seem to stop them under the standing rules, this lawsuit must be the next best way they see to remove some players from the field and intimidate the rest.

Is it just me or does this sound like something out of a George Orwell novel? The Democrats are seeking to use the power of the judicial branch to eliminate the opposition and, very likely, frighten others into silence. And it’s all being done under the vague accusation of “misleading” the people who signed up for the proposal. The signature forms all made it clear that the purpose of the initiative was to recall Newman. And how could any volunteers discuss the issue without bringing up the tax hike, given that this was the impetus for the recall effort in the first place? If that was too confusing to some voters, leading them to think they were trying to recall the tax hike, then what of it? That’s the end goal anyway, though it takes a couple of steps to do it.

I find it hard to believe that this sort of lawsuit would gain much traction, but then again… this is California we’re talking about. Anything is possible out there as long as it fits in with the overarching liberal narrative. Thankfully there should be some sort of appeals process in place. But if they manage to get away with this then you may as well shut out the lights and let the state secede from the nation. Democracy will be pretty much toast.