Colorado Lawmakers – Secret Service Must Arrest Local Sheriffs for Failing to Enforce an Unenforceable Law

by Bob Adelmann

The furor over the signing into law of Senate Bill 13-013 earlier this week by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper went viral following the publishing of an article by Mike Opelka at theblaze.com.  Opelka suggested that the new law could be “used to arrest or force county sheriffs to enforce the state’s new gun laws,” whether they wanted to or not.

It was fanned into white heat when World News Daily quoted Colorado State Representative Lori Saine who exclaimed:

 This is insane! In theory if a Secret Service agent is in a county where the sheriff has refused to enforce some of the recent unenforceable gun laws, the agent could [ignore the sheriff entirely and] arrest any individual if he believes the law has been broken…

I believe it is intended to be used for setting up a framework so that at some other time they could expand it to possibly include being able to arrest a sheriff who is refusing to enforce unconstitutional laws.

Charley Barnes, writing at K99.com in Denver, further fanned the controversy last Monday when he wrote:

By the sounds of it, Colorado is being targeted with an attempt to set up loopholes that will allow the U.S. Secret Service to arrest and remove an elected sheriff for refusing to enforce the law, or anyone [else] breaking the law.

His post went viral which caused the Larimer County Sheriff’s office to get so many phone calls and emails that Sheriff Justin Smith was forced to respond and “clarify” what SB 13 was really designed to do. Here is Smith’s response to Barnes:

In the last decade, Colorado started to grant limited authority to certain federal law enforcement agencies. The purpose is so that if they witness a citizen being victimized, they can act and turn the case over to a local police officer (because most crimes against our citizens are not federal crimes and they have no other jurisdiction to intervene as federal officers).

The law also allows them, in cases where they are investigating a crime that is against both state and federal law, to file the case with our local DA [District Attorney] in situations where the damage amount doesn’t meet a threshold where the federal prosecutors will file it in federal court.

If you read the bill, you will see the limitations clearly in it. As sheriffs, we are the beacon against over reach by federal authorities, but in this situation, it is not the case.

(signed) – Sheriff Justin Smith

However, when one does actually read the specific language of SB 13 a clearer and more ominous picture emerges that refutes Smith’s disclaimer.  Taken directly from the language of the law,

The law gives a special agent, uniform[ed] division officer, physical security technician, physical security specialist, or special officer of the United States Secret Service limited peace officer authority while working in Colorado.

On its face, the law gives “limited peace officer authority” but without ever limiting that authority. Here’s the rest of the law:

THE SECRET SERVICE AGENT IS A PEACE OFFICER IN THE FOLLOWING CIRCUMSTANCES:

(I) RESPONDING TO A NONFEDERAL FELONY OR MISDEMEANOR THAT HAS BEEN COMMITTED IN HIS OR HER PRESENCE;

(II) RESPONDING TO AN EMERGENCY SITUATION IN WHICH HE OR SHE HAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT A NONFEDERAL FELONY OR MISDEMEANOR INVOLVING INJURY OR THREAT OF INJURY TO A PERSON OR PROPERTY HAS BEEN, OR IS BEING, COMMITTED AND IMMEDIATE ACTION IS REQUIRED TO PREVENT ESCAPE, SERIOUS BODILY INJURY, OR DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY;

(III) RENDERING ASSISTANCE AT THE REQUEST OF A COLORADO PEACE OFFICER; OR

(IV) EFFECTING AN ARREST OR PROVIDING ASSISTANCE AS PART OF A BONA FIDE TASK FORCE OR JOINT INVESTIGATION WITH COLORADO PEACE OFFICERS.

Simply put, a Secret Service agent is granted the same powers as local law enforcement officers if he

1. Sees a crime being committed,
2. Has “probable cause” that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed,
3. Has been asked to assist local law enforcement, or
4. Is part of a joint task force with local law enforcement.

Eerily, the bill goes on to say that this agent doesn’t have to follow Colorado rules when exercising those powers.  Here’s more from the law:

(b) THE SECRET SERVICE AGENT ACTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RULES AND REGULATIONS OF HIS OR HER EMPLOYING AGENCY.

And who employs this Secret Service Agent? The United States Government. And under its rules, the Fourth Amendment is erased from consideration. Here’s the language:

(2) A SECRET SERVICE AGENT IS A PERSON WHO IS EMPLOYED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, ASSIGNED TO THE UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, EMPOWERED TO EFFECT AN ARREST WITH OR WITHOUT A WARRANT FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES CODE, AND AUTHORIZED TO CARRY A FIREARM AND USE DEADLY FORCE IN THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS OR HER DUTIES AS A FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.  (emphasis added)

This is plain English. The Secret Service Agent, acting as an agent of the federal government and not the state of Colorado, may, by using deadly force if necessary, arrest an individual without a warrant for any activity under the United States Code observed by that officer which gives him “probable cause” to conduct the arrest.

It is not too much of a stretch to conjure an activity by a sheriff of a Colorado county that is perceived by that agent as violating, or might possibly violate, the United States Code. If that sheriff is observed failing to enforce a law, the agent, under SB 13, is allowed – no, required – to use deadly force if necessary to arrest that sheriff.

Some might suggest that this is tenuous, a stretch, an unnecessary overreaching of the potential impact of SB 13. Perhaps so. But it is helpful to remember that the United States Code is over 200,000 pages long and contains 51 titles, one of which is entitled Domestic Security. The Department of Homeland Security enforces that part of the Code, with the responsibility that, as noted by Wikipedia, “works in the civilian sphere to protect the United States within … its borders. Its stated goal is to prepare for, prevent, and respond to domestic emergencies, particularly terrorism.”

Is it too much of a stretch to see how the failure to enforce a state law by a county sheriff might enable terrorists in the eyes of an agent of the Secret Service?

As Charley Barnes put it:

I think the bottom line is [that] there are now around 350 sheriffs from all across the country who are staring into a barrel of trouble when they refuse to arrest someone based on the 2^nd Amendment issues they say they will not enforce.

At least one pro-gun Republican state senator who voted in favor of SB 13 is having second thoughts.  At a Town Hall meeting on Saturday in Falcon, Colorado, at the Gathering Stones Community Church, state senator Kevin Grantham, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, said that the bill was only “intended” to assist local and state law enforcement officials in their duties. He wrote to one of his constituents, saying,

Mark, I will tell you what I’ve been telling everyone about this legislation since it’s taken on a life of its own: as far as votes go I suppose all things being equal I would probably take that one back…

The one criticism leveled against the bill and against my vote, to which I humbly acquiesce, is that it does grant power where none existed before. For that alone I would like to have [my] vote back.

The furor will likely continue and undoubtedly even increase if and when a Secret Service agent does attempt to do exactly what Barnes has suggested: he arrests a local sheriff for failing to enforce an unenforceable law.

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A graduate of Cornell University and a former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at www.LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at badelmann@thenewamerican.com.