George Sheetz Day in Court

       El Dorado County resident, George Sheetz, is having his day in court. The phrase " having your day in court" often refers to criminal proceedings as simple as explaining a 'moving violation citation' to the judge. In this case, in front of "The Supremes", Mr. Sheetz is represented by counsel, counselors, and a host of heavy hitters: aka, amicae curie- friends of the court.

      Not to be left out El Dorado County has a battery of "friends of the court": various political civil servants and their friends have jumped in to defend the respondent El Dorado County. Apparently, the City of San Francisco sees this case as a threat to its long standing position(s) that a developer must pay, and pay and pay some more for a permit to build a high rise or an outhouse.  SF's City Attorney, Davis Chiu, has his name atop a battery of lawyers from his over-sized offices in city hall.

      One can if one chooses to review the list, read the briefs and comments filed in December last after the case was accepted by the Supreme Court. The Mayor of Tahoma, El Dorado County, has done this to aid the residents who are interested in learning why building in the town, building in the county, and building anything in California is very, very expensive and essentially only available to corporate entities, hedge funders, and foreign governments.

First-the supporters of George Sheetz

Manhattan Institute(w/four other legal groups)

1. Southeastern Legal Foundation(SLF)w/ Beacon Center of Tennessee
2. CATO Institute
3. Pacific Legal Foundation
4. U.S. Chamber of Commerce
5. Atlantic Legal Foundation
6. National Federation of Independent Business
7. Mercatus Center
8. Mountain States Legal Foundation
9. Nat. Assoc. of Realtors

       The Federalist Society is not on this list but has opined on the case.

Supporters of Respondent El Dorado County;

      1. The Solicitor General of the United States

      2. The City & County of San Francisco

      3. Nat. Assoc. of Counties

      4. National League of Cities

      5. International Muni Lawyers

      6. Gov. Finance Officers Assoc.

      7. League of California Cities

      8.Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

      9. Constitution Accountability Center

     10. Local Gov. Legal Center

      11. State of California

        The Justices will be looking at this lineup of "amici" and not the distinction among them. Most of the support for El Dorado County comes from bureaucratic entities paid by taxpayers. Seems to me there's an imbalance here: in individual v. an entire army of legal entities whose livelihood is maintained by--taxpayer(s). Mr. Sheetz is funding his opponents in a fashion. These various individuals see their roles as custodians of the community, guardians of civility and order in municipal operations wherever they are. But what about Mr. Sheetz? Nobody at the permit department of El Dorado county could explain why his permit needed $24,000 more of his hard earned dollars to be approved.

      California has a severe shortage of------HOUSING. The permit process and the cost of a permit has exceeded the ability of workers to pay for same. All the civic functionaries load the home owner/builder with more and larger fees as if the owner has unlimited funds.

    All of these issues are here exposed and will be a concern of the Justices as they combine their legal experience and knowledge to decide the arguments put forth this morning in Washington, D.C.