Touch and Go

TOUCH AND GO… Squid tries to abide by all the laws humans have created, even absurd ones. At least cephalopods don’t wear shoes, making that high heels permit requirement in Carmel irrelevant. When Squid visits friends in Los Angeles, Squid is sure not to hunt moths under streetlights, which remains illegal in that city.

Squid perked up on July 16 when the Monterey Peninsula Airport District board considered repealing three ordinances – two passed in 1978, one in 1979 – regulating airport hours, plane altitudes, touch-and-go landings and such. Thing is, the airport never enforced the ordinances, as they are preempted by the Federal Aviation Act, and attorney Scott Huber gave the board a presentation that concluded, “Each of the three ordinances are invalid, unconstitutional, and/or are ineffective. As your counsel, it is my recommendation that [they] be repealed for those reasons.” A few in the public chimed in, with one suggesting there should be an environmental review on the impact of repealing the ordinances. That was the whole point, Huber then told the board – repealing the ordinances will have no impact, because they’ve never been enforced.

Next, the board spent more than an hour polishing the language of its now-official “Voluntary Fly Quiet Program,” a voluntary set of guidelines – not enforceable – that the airport encourages all non-airline pilots to adhere to. Only board member Jonathan Ahmadi voted against the adopted language, as he felt it reasonable to ask that flights be discouraged from 11pm-7am. The majority went with the hours of midnight-5am, thinking that would generate fewer complaints. Only time will tell.

Rock n’ Rule… Speaking of federal laws, members of the Ninth District Judicial Conference (federal courts in nine western states) are meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey as Squid inks this column. Their conference started Monday, July 21 and ends on July 24. It’s the first time in 11 years it has been held in Monterey, and that means only some of the most influential decisionmakers of our time – Mary H. Murguia, Chief Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan among them – are in town this week. So too are members of the band The Recusals, “a unique rock band composed primarily of federal judges from the Northern District.”

What? Federal judges rockin’ “I Fought The Law”? Squid’s colleague caught up with the conference organizers, eager to know more: When and where would The Recusals perform? Sadly, Squid’s colleague was informed, the band “will be playing a private event that is closed to the public and media.” Lame! Is that what the Deep State is?

Squid would appeal the matter, but to who?