Wednesday May 7, 2025
Thank you for the privilege of the floor.
I’m Adrian Kuzminski, a long-time resident of Otsego county. Let me get straight to the
point.
The United States is in a Constitutional crisis. The president has declared a series of
national emergencies not authorized under the Constitution. These allow him to rule by
decree through executive order, bypassing Congress and the Federal courts. We can no
longer rely on due process and the rule of law. Instead we have autocratic rule by one
person.
Autocratic rule is uncertain and capricious. You can get an enlightened monarch, or a
tyrant. Administrative law replaces actual law. Executive orders, which can change without
warning, ignore existing legislation and court rulings. Already, approved funding has
suddenly and arbitrarily been withheld from state and local governments, social programs,
educational institutions, and civic organizations. Tariffs have been arbitrarily imposed and
adjusted. Government agencies and workers have been abruptly eliminated. Foreign
nationals have been arrested for their opinions. The surveillance powers of the government
have been turned against its citizens. Critics of the government have been subject to
punishment, and may soon be labelled traitors.
In a remarkable speech on the Senate floor the other day, on the 30th of April and available
on YouTube, Republican Senator Rand Paul went further than any prominent Democrat I
know in pointing out that the Constitution does not allow for autocratic rule, what he called
“one person rule.” “Government by one person,” Senator Rand reminds us, “assumes all
power by asserting an emergency, which is the antithesis of Constitutional government. . .
The Constitution,” he adds, “doesn’t allow the president to be the sole decider.” In the
meantime, the president himself has told us that he doesn’t know whether he has to
support the Constitution or not.
As our elected local representatives, who have some responsibility to protect our
Constitutional rights, I respectfully ask you, the Otsego County Board of Representatives,
to deliberate and consider some kind of public response to this serious matter which
increasingly affects all of us. Your voice, or its absence, is important
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